@Dhebij , I don't know what to say i.e. how to explain the issue. In fact I have never actually even looked at this till you brought this to my attention ( Thank You for that ).
It probably was that way for a long time.
I did go back at look at the worksheets for both 2022 and 2023. In 2023 new lines have been added :
2022 -- you go from the SSA-1099 entry ( lines A through H, sum this as your total SSA benefits on line 1. Line 2 starts with "enter one half of line 1 and continue to compute the taxable portion of SSA benefits.
In 2023, after the lines A through H , you get line 1a as the original line 1. Then you have lines 1b and 1c allowing for " Benefits exemption from US taxes due to living abroad in country with tax treaty" and thereby allowing line 1c to be the new SSA benefit for computing both paths of SSA taxability. Quite a clever way to handle the situation by splicing in two lines.
I do not believe that there will be any noise / explanation as to why this was not implemented post 2006 NOR why the IRS checks ( either during the test period prior to "open for business" or during actual filing season ) did not uncover this issue.
Have no knowledge if the other tax prep software have had the same issue or not.
I humbly apologize that none of use volunteers even caught this issue.
pk
