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Yes.  If they are still legally married and he does not maintain a home for a qualifying dependent that would qualify him to file as Head of Household, then his only filing status option would be Married Filing Separately.     No.  If she itemizes he does not have to.  Since she is filing HOH, she is considered unmarried for tax purposes so the matching rule does not apply.  So he can take the standard deduction or itemized deduction.    Which state do they live in? If they live in a community property state, the rules may be slightly different as to how it works for her to file HOH and him to file MFS.  They still may have to allocate income and expenses depending on which state they live in.    

This solved it.  There is a screen that asks how much tax I paid to NJ and how much was paid on my behalf.  The incorrect number was entered on the first line.  I removed it, and everything now calculates correctly.   Thanks so much for your help!

This represents money paid to you (or accrued to your benefit even if not paid directly) as a result of participation in a "non-qualified" retirement plan.  Certain retirement benefits may be non-qualified for a variety of reasons -- I can't guess what the reason might be in your case.   The most common reason to have a box 11 amount is that you participated in a deferred compensation plan--once you retire, your payout under such a plan is taxed as wages rather than retirement benefits because it was not taxed as wages while you were working.   Box 11 can also have an amount if you vest in the plan (money is credited to you) even if it is not paid directly to you.   The effect in Turbotax is to adjust your social security tax, since the amount is only $16, the tax adjustment should be at most +/- $1.20.  If you did not "buy in" to your retirement plan to buy extra credits so you can retire early, the more correct choice would be "I took money out" -- even if it was only a benefit that vested to you but you did not cash it out.   You can also ask your employer for an explanation, it is possible that they put something in the wrong box. 

Thanks for the replies. The W2 I posted was one example, I have about $43k tip income between jobs.   I believe this has to do with how the 401k deduction is applied. It seems to go to wages first, then tips. Because of this, it's letting me do the full tip deduction but is fully locking out the OT deduction. I ran some numbers and if it were applied proportionately, I'd still get the full tip deduction and at least part of the OT.   I guess I'm just trying to figure out if this is a bug or if it's how the IRS is actually doing the calculation. Or maybe it was just a late change that they haven't fully worked out yet. It only affects people with substantial tips, OT, and 401k contributions. 

Wow, thanks for the great/clear reply!   > As far as why this is the "first year" I'm eligible? it could be because [...] in previous years your foreign taxes were under the threshold ($300 individual / $600 joint)   That's it. Last year it was 227; this year it reached 312.   > If you truly want to avoid the "once-in-a-lifetime" trigger and your foreign tax paid is only slightly over the $300/$600 limit, some taxpayers choose to voluntarily limit their credit to exactly $300/$600   Interesting. Seems like that might be worth it given it's only 312 - tho I imagine that's just punting it one more year, when my foreign tax from investments will have (presumably) grown. My original (mis)-understanding was that I wouldn't have to decide on the election unless or until I actually owe AMT, which may be far in the future or never happen. But if the need to make the election triggered by just $300 of foreign tax credit...that would be right around the corner either way. Which sort of makes me wonder (out of curiosity), do you know the rationale for why some people limit at $300 to avoid making the election?   > Since you are filing Form 1116 this year, the IRS requires you to choose a method (Simplified or Standard) to calculate the AMT version of your credit.   So...a CPA did actually file Form 1116 for me in a prior year, but with only $31 of foreign tax. There was no Form 6251 that year. Does that prior Form 1116 mean I was already eligible for the election...? Does it affect this in any way?   Thanks again! 🙂

To qualify to file for free their return should be a simple 1040, no other forms or schedules except to claim credits like Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, student loan interest, and Schedule 1-A.  The Education Credits are not included in the free filings.     TurboTax Online: Important Details about Filing Simple Form 1040 Return  

To avoid confusion, simply attaching examples of John Doe's Form 709, and Jane Doe's 709 for this simple example of John Doe splitting his 2025 $50K gift would help all a lot, and minimize communication errors.

If he does not have custody more than half the nights of the year, he can't file HOH and must file single.  However, if she files HOH, her deductions (whether she uses itemized or standard) are not linked to her spouse.  Your son can file with whichever deduction method gives the least tax. 

Ok - I logged in today and it seems that something was fixed with the software, but it still isn't correct. It is now not including my real estate/property taxes in my itemized deductions. This has been a mess! Can someone at least tell me how I can ignore what TurboTax is doing and manually complete the forms for filing? I can't even figure out how to do that on the Online version.