Several final related points to the Simplified AMT problem as I'm stopping all effort relating to 2020 taxes after I finish this note. Apologies in advance for the length of this note....
First, my reject notices all said that only information was missing from my 1116. They did not refer to the Simplified AMT problem even though I had said "yes" to that election. I eventually finagled my way through the 1116 using a combination of suggestions from the very helpful people on this blog. After making 3 or 4 attempts where I just changed one thing at a time (and wasted 2 full days in the process), I decided to go whole hog and make all the changes you kind folks recommended together in one update and miraculously IRS accepted my efile. So unfortunately I can't help pinpoint the critical change. The one thing I did NOT change was the Simplified AMT election as I was concerned about the TurboTax comment saying that one can not switch without IRS approval. My point is that it seems TurboTax (or possibly the IRS) may have fixed the issue relating to this problem.
If I had the Simplified AMT problem that many of you have, and if I had read the comments on this blog, I would have taken the approach to calculate the tax with and without changing my election. If I ended up with the same final result, I would have switched my election to "no" and as others have said kept a copy of this blog together with the two sets of calculations just in case IRS ever came back to ask about it. I'm not a tax lawyer, so maybe this isn't great advice, but it is a practical solution. As a side point, the one time I ran into a problem with the IRS, I was able to show it was due to an honest miscommunication with my accountant (back when my employer paid for my tax prep) and the IRS was very reasonable about the issue.
One reason I'm not too worried about that approach of changing my AMT election: although I have had to pay AMT in the past, and actually have large potential 1116 AMT carryforward tax credits available, I don't expect to pay AMT in the future and so I don't really care if those tax credits disappear. As opposed to my regular 1116 carryforward credits which I don't want to lose.
Second, TurboTax says that I made the Simplified AMT election in the past and therefore I am not able to change it without IRS approval. I'm just so tired of working on taxes now that I don't have the stamina to go back through old returns and find out when and why I would have made that election. I am wondering specifically if at some point in the past TurboTax suggested to me that it was a good approach.
Third, though both TaxAct and H&R Block software failed in being able to deal with all of my tax requirements in the past, and so I felt forced to stick with TurboTax, I'm optimistic from reading many comments on this blog about others being able to use both of those alternatives. Very helpful reviews from ABitAnnoyed and Deskandchairs among others. I especially like the analysis about worksheets which seems to say that TaxAct provides by far the best backup worksheets, with TurboTax next, and H&R Block last. So my vote will go to TaxAct next year. In fact, if I end up with some free time this summer, I might just give TaxAct a try with my 2020 tax and see what happens.
Best of luck to all of you.
