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A couple reasons it could have upgraded… You might be seeing this because of form 8959, that goes to Schedule 2. The amount of Medicare taxes withheld in W2 box 6 is not exactly 1.45% of the Medicare wages in box 5, due to rounding. I read a post that said to try leaving the cents off of the Medicare tax on your W2 box 6. Box 6 has to be exactly 1.45% of box 5 or less. If it is saying you need Schedule 3 and can't use the Free Edition it might be giving you the Retirement Savings Credit. You can say you are a student to decline the credit. You must answer Yes when asked in the Retirement Savings Contributions Credit section if your were a full-time student. The answer to this same question asked in the personal-information section is not the answer that is used.

It's unclear who provided the information from the IRS, however you can certainly mail the corrected Form 1099-NEC along with your Form 1096.    If you are unable to select the checkbox you can use the information below to mail the forms.   It would be the most common method of correction. The mailing addresses are on the Form 1096. It may be the easiest process Form 1096 Form 1099-NEC @BAY AREA BOOKS 

OK Here is what I found: On the pension and annuities worksheet there is a box that must be checked "qualifies for gov't exclusion". Once I checked this box the program automatically populated line 26 with the correct NYS pension amount and also correcting line 29 "pension exclusion credit" So now I have the full exclusion of my NYS pension and my allowed exclusion discount of my non govt. annuity.  Be aware that there is definitely A problem that exist with turbotax. The program returned the absolute wrong calculations and reported back with no errors when completing the NY state return review even when it reported no tax owed!   Thank you much for your reply.  All comments appreciated.   Lou  

Thank you for the response @DianeW777.  I believe you have answered my question as to why Schedule U is being created (it looks like Part I is required for all filers now?), but I am still unsure as to why TurboTax thinks I owe a penalty.    The Schedule U form itself is filled out correctly by TurboTax using last year's liability and this year's estimated tax payments, and line 12 (Total underpayment for year) shows a negative balance which, according to the form, means there is no penalty (If the result is zero or less, stop here; you do not owe underpayment interest).    So, I guess I am back to wondering why: 1) TurboTax thinks I owe an underpayment penalty? 2) Why is Schedule U causing an error message in Adobe?  (Apologies for the lack of details on this second part.  As I mentioned in my original post, I simply get a message that says "An error exists on this page. Acrobat may not display the page correctly. Please contact the person who created the PDF document to correct the problem.")   Thanks for your help! - Don    

"I want to confirm: you had excess HSA contributions in 2024, but you withdrew them all before the original due date of the return (April 15, 2025). This is the $3,353."  Correct.   "OK, go back and answer "No" to the question of "Did you overfund your HSA last year?". Then let's see what happens."  No change.  HSA summary looks like the "$0 Input" readout in my last message.   Line 6 in my Form 1040 shows only $61, not the $1081 like you got.   Maybe I can manually make adjustments to the schedules and Form 1040 to get through this?  I'm comfortable working in Form view.   Would it help to know that I purchased my digital TT2025 copy from Amazon, then downloaded it from the Intuit site?    

Exactly what "tax rate" are you looking at? Different parts of your income are taxed at different rates. If you are looking at the "blended tax rate" that TurboTax shows you, it has nothing to do with how your tax is calculated. It's an essentially meaningless number. You should ignore it.  

@ol_run wrote: I see now. So, if I enter the correct value of unreimbursed clergy expenses in line 5c and fill out some explanation statement for that line, should I be able to file at least my federal clergy taxes electronically? Also, do you have an example of what explanation may look like for the 5c value? I don't know that you even need to enter an explanation.  Line 5c of the schedule SE worksheet is not reported to the IRS.  The result of the calculation is reported on line 5a of schedule SE.   Line 5a of schedule SE is "clergy income."  That will be some number that is your wages, plus your housing allowance, minus your adjusted expenses.  Since the housing allowance is not reported officially to the IRS anywhere, the IRS will just see that your clergy income for SE tax is higher than your W-2 wages (which is typical for clergy with a housing allowance.)   When filing on paper you are supposed to attach an explanation -- for example, listing your wages, housing allowance, base expenses, and adjusted expenses based on the Deason rule.   But there is no way to attach a similar statement when e-filing.  And even if you add an explanation to the adjustment worksheet, that is a Turbotax only worksheet that is not transmitted to the IRS.   So any simple explanation is fine "adjusted unreimbursed expenses" or just leave it blank.  But keep your records of how you calculated it in case of audit later. 

I am using Windows 2025 version of the software. I have filled out the required 1099-R information and the 5329-T Part XI as required for an incomplete RMD withdrawal. The "Waiver of Tax Smart Sheet" opens the "Explanation Statement" window with the appropriate information documenting a "Waiver Explanation". However, no text is kept in the explanation lined area.  (This should be a standard expandable text box.) I found no other way in forms or Step by Step to enter this explanation.

@robainat   What do you have on your 1040 line 13b?     If you aren’t automatically getting the new Enhanced Senior Deduction on 1040 line 13b (from Schedule 1-A) in addition to the regular Standard Deduction on line 12e, some things to check…. Check your date of birth under My Info   2/12/26 new reason for not getting the 6,000 Enhanced Senior Deduction. Someone just posted that their ssn under My Info was marked NOT VALID for employment. Uncheck that and it was ok. If you are married you have to file a Joint return not Separate

As DoninGA mentions, the TurboTax Free Edition is for customers who are filing simple Form 1040 returns only (no schedules except for Earned Income Credit, Child Tax Credit and Student Loan Interest. Roughly 3.7% of taxpayers qualify. You can access TurboTax Free Edition here.   Depending on what TurboTax platform you are using, you may be able to downgrade to a different TurboTax Online product: Open your return  In the left menu, select Switch Products Select Downgrade You can review your fees using the instructions below to find out why you're being charged. You can follow the instructions in this article to remove any  unwanted Fees Why am I being charged for TurboTax Free Edition?   You can review your fees in TurboTax online as follows: Go to the left side of your screen under "Tax Home" Go to "Tax Tools" then "Tools" The "Tools Center" Box will pop up Click on "My Fees" to see a summary of your Turbo Tax Fees. If you have additional information or questions regarding this, please return to Community and we would be glad to help.  

This is not new tax law. With summary transaction totals a mailing of the form 1099-B or your spreadsheet and Form 8453 is a very common mailing requirement.  Your brokerage statements should include a summary of your transactions, grouped by sales category, for example, Box A short-term covered or Box D long-term covered.   You can always use direct entry if you choose, with summary totals.  The only exception if wash sales, which must be entered separately, if you have any. Where do I enter Form 1099-B? (Ignore import) How do I mail Form 8453? (review if alerted) You can e-file, and mail the required forms no later than three days after acceptance of your return.   @Ambilobe