Thank you for the reply.
I see now what the problem is. If I set up a new company and say that I have W-2 employees for that company, then the option is there under Less Common Expenses to add Pension Plan Startup Costs for that company. However, on a company that has no employees, such as a sole proprietorship, the Pension Plan Startup Costs option isn't offered.
I know it may seem to make sense that without employees, that Pension Plan Startup Costs option isn't needed. But sole proprietorships are eligible for the auto-enrollment credit which is also claimed in that same area of Form 8881. So some of us sole proprietors need to be able to fill in Form 8881 with that auto-enrollment credit.
We need TurboTax to provide an option for us to claim the auto-enrollment credit even as sole proprietors. I don't know if, despite having no employees, we as sole proprietors could just check the box saying we have employees as a workaround for the sake of gaining access to that Pension Plan Startup Costs screen without having something else populate incorrectly on the tax forms. But I would be concerned doing that would cause a problem.
One other problem is that as sole proprietors we may need to claim the auto-enrollment part of the credit without claiming any startup costs. Right now if I correctly put $0 for the startup costs, it won't give me a way to claim the auto-enrollment credit. If I put some dollar amount for the startup cost, incorrectly but just as a test, then it lets me claim the auto-enrollment credit, but incorrectly gives credit for the startup credit too.
How can a sole proprietor claim just the auto-enrollment credit without claiming anything for the startup credit?
Please help.
Edit: It seems like if I enter some Pension Plan Startup Cost amount, this gives me access to the auto-enrollment credit. And then I can go back later and replace the startup cost with $0 and the auto-enrollment credit remains. So if you put $0 in first, you can't even claim the auto-enrollment credit. But if you put some amount in, claim the auto-enrollment credit, then change the amount to $0 it works. This may be a workaround.
However the other problem still remains - that the entire Pension Plan Startup Cost option isn't even available if you enter accurately as a sole proprietor that you have no employees.
