Having dealt with the federal government in a strict compliance/regulatory environment over many years, I can understand why TT does not want unilaterally to determine that the instructions are in error. However, this is a simple issue that could be resolved between TT and IRS with little effort. This is not the only issue this year I have found that TT seems to have no interest in fixing. If you go to the second page or so when you start your entering your data, there will be a link at the bottom of the page that you can click to find out what’s new in the rates for 2018. When I did that, it gave me the changes for HOH, which it claimed was my status, even though I was MFJ. When I notified TT of that issue, their response was that only the HOH rates changed. I refilled the issue stating that their response was nonsense; they said they would look at it again. The last I checked the issue was still not fixed. Maybe it’s time next year to switch from TT. BTW, I suspect that the IRS does not even check line 4a. At least on my return, it is meaningless in my tax determination. In addition, if 4a has real meaning, this entire issue could be simplified by always entering a value in 4a regardless of whether or not all distributions were taxable.
