What you show are the instructions on the front of the form, which is how TurboTax computes Underpayment of Estimated Income Tax. This method causes TurboTax to push the need for an interest payment for underpayment of estimated tax to my return. If you go to the instructions for the form, on page 2, you are told to enter the actual income received for the period of the year covered by the column. If your income was received evenly throughout the year, you can do what you said, divide Total Income by 4, and you will end up with the total from line 1 in the 4th Period column, and in my case a penalty for underpayment of tax. If I enter my actual income, and Maryland Tax withheld per quarter, I have no penalty and the total in the 4th Period column is the total of the four Period columns. This is the correct method for someone in my situation, and probably many others. Your method causes an unnecessary penalty. There are no requirements that I can find in the instructions that say the two values are to be the same. The 4th Period value does not have the Maryland Exclusions in it, and without changing the form substantially this could not easily be done. All that needs to be changed is to remove the block on the 4th Period value to allow manual entry, just as is done for the 1st, 2nd, and 3d Period columns, and the form would then be filled in correctly for those of us in this unusual situation. This is how I see it from reading the instructions. My intention is to allow TurboTax to complete the Maryland Tax Form 502UP using my values in the first 3 columns, print the pages required for mailing the return, discard the TurboTax Form 502UP, complete a new 502UP with my values, and mail it with the remainder of the TurboTax forms instead of e-Filing the Maryland return. And also, save the ridiculously high $25 e-File fee, and be sure to switch to another tax preparation software for the next tax year, because this has been a miserable experience!!
