About 30 plus years ago the same individual for H&R Block Executive Service did my taxes and suggested I buy IRA’s for my wife and I to lower our tax rate which I did every year. He would send an appointment card reminder and suggested I could buy for the previous year and the present year which I did; when he looked at my wife’s W2 he informed me she was in a retirement program, a 401K, which we had discussed before, and had told her not to do , therefore I could not deduct them.
I started using TurboTax 20 plus years ago and 10 years ago when turning 70 ½ and required to make a minimum withdrawal, I established the basis for the non-deductible portion of my accumulated IRA’s and each year the program would retrieve the previous year’s Form 8606 data and the only thing I had to do was insert the 1099-R withdrawal amount and it would calculate a percentage of my non-deductible basis that was non-taxable . The bank would always send me my statement balance of Dec 31 of the taxable year and previous year which I never used.
This year changed from the previous 10 years, it asked me for the 2016 Dec 31 Basis which I believed they were asking for the remainder of the unused portion of the non-deductible IRA’s, when I used the balance of the 2016 and 2017 it was so “out of whack” from the previous years I thought there was something wrong with the program.
I had bought my TT CD program at an office supply store. the 4th TT agent had me delete my previously installed program and she downloaded a duplicate program, which claimed to be 100% accurate; the taxable portion was 10% of the non-taxable. I submitted it and 2 weeks later received a direct deposit in my checking account. At the rate TT had been calculating it previously I would have died before using all the non-deductible portion.
Had TT explained the changes it would have been helpful but left them possibly liable for the previous method.
