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Turbo Tax Home & Business is adding a Estimated Tax Penalty of $136 on line 38 of form 1040 when line 34 indicates an overpayment of $263.  The IRS help guide says a underpayment of estimated tax is avoided if the filed tax return shows owing less than $1,000.  I should not have to white out my tax return to make a correction for eliminating the penalty.    It would be nice to know if this issue is fixed by contracting me at [email address removed] or [phone number removed].   Thank you, Dan

Sorry, I'm still unclear about what I need to enter on form 8938 as the inheritance money was merged with non-inheritance money in my bank account. Do I subtract the inheritance amount from the maximum amount in my bank account and enter that as the maximum value of the account on form 8938?   Thanks

Sign into your TurboTax Online account or open your return and tell us what the status shows.   If your return was rejected, you can make changes while you have the return open and then resubmit the return.   And can you clarify what the reject code is?

To enter your Passive Loss Carryover for Airbnb reported on Schedule E in TurboTax Online, follow these steps: 1. Go to the Federal Taxes section, then select Wages & Income. 2. Scroll down to the Rental Properties and Royalties (Schedule E) section and select Start or Update. 3. Enter your Airbnb rental property information as prompted. 4. When asked about prior year passive loss carryovers, enter the amount of your passive loss carryover from your previous tax return. This ensures your prior year passive losses are applied correctly to your current year's rental income. If you used TurboTax last year and transferred last year's return, this information may already be imported.

That depends. If you're not divorced by December 31, 2025, the IRS still considers you married.  You must file as either Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separatly.  I would expect you would prefer Seperately. You must both take Itemized Deductios, or Standard deductions. If you are legally divorced or have a final decree of separate maintenance, you must file as Single or Head of Household. 

In TurboTax Online, if it says you are not eligible for the simplified home office deduction due to zero or negative net profit, but you show a positive net income, the issue often arises from the way business income or losses were entered. To address this: 1. Double-check your business income and expenses entries to ensure your net profit calculation is correct. 2. Review any business losses or deductions that might reduce your net income to zero or less in the software's calculations. 3. Revisit the home office deduction section and confirm your answers, especially the net profit figures. Sometimes, TurboTax may calculate net profit differently from your manual calculation due to specific expenses or adjustments.   To review and correct your business income entries in TurboTax Online, follow these steps: 1. Go to the Wages & Income section. 2. Scroll down to Business Income and Expenses (Schedule C) and select Start or Update. 3. Proceed through the questions until you reach your business summary. 4. Carefully review your income entries such as 1099-NEC or cash income to ensure all amounts are entered correctly. 5. Check your expense entries for accuracy and completeness since expenses affect your net profit. 6. After confirming income and expenses, TurboTax will recalculate your net profit. 7. Then, navigate back to the home office deduction section to re-check eligibility. This process helps ensure your net profit reflects correctly for the simplified home office deduction.

It is up to you if you want to claim the Arkansas child care credit or not.  The credit allows you to claim up to 20% of the federal credit.  To claim it, you must claim the federal child and dependent care credit.   Child and Dependent Care Credit information    

Yes, there’s a better way than overriding. The “more than 85%” error usually appears when the lump-sum Social Security entry isn’t reported correctly through the lump-sum calculation interview or when a prior-year amount is placed on the wrong line. Use the built-in lump-sum method flow and remove any overrides so TurboTax can compute the taxable portion correctly.   Remove overrides Open the return, go to the Social Security worksheet and clear any manual overrides you made. Use the lump-sum interview: Federal > Wages & Income > Retirement Plans and Social Security. Edit Social Security (SSA-1099). When asked if your Form SSA-1099 includes a lump-sum payment for prior years, select Yes. Enter the 2025 total from Box 5, then the prior-year amounts as shown on the SSA-1099 (e.g., 2024 portion). Do not net or reallocate, enter exactly as shown. Prior-year info: When prompted, enter your filing status and key income items for the prior year (2024) so the lump-sum method can test whether taxing it as if received in the prior year(s) lowers your tax. Check for common causes of the error: Only Box 5 belongs in Social Security benefits. Don’t enter the prior-year portion as a separate SSA-1099; it goes in the lump-sum section. If you have tax-exempt interest, foreign earned income exclusion, or large IRA/retirement income, make sure those are entered correctly; they affect the 85% cap. If the Error Persists in "Forms Mode" (Desktop Users) If you are using the CD/Download version:   Switch to Forms Mode (top right).  Find the Lump-Sum Social Security Worksheet.  Look at Line B and Line 19. The software is likely miscalculating the "ceiling" for the 85% rule.  Rather than overriding the final 1040, ensure the 2024 Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) and Tax-Exempt Interest from your 2024 return (If you had any)  are entered correctly in the worksheet. This usually "unlocks" the math.

@Jtrain4 wrote: Thank you so much for taking the time to explain to me things in such good detail. This has been so helpful. I'm new here, and I don't mean anything by this, I just don't know what this forum really is. Are you and the others who respond tax people preparers? People with "expert" are Turbotax employees.  People with "Champ" next to their names are experienced volunteers who have been on the board for a while, have agreed to a code of conduct, and have been vetted by the moderators for being mostly accurate most of the time.   Anyone without a label can be anyone.  (Some are former champs who object to the code of conduct for whatever reason.)   Some are accountants, or tax preparers, even attorneys, some are just knowledgeable volunteers.  I am not a paid preparer, I do this as a hobby, and I tend to stick to areas that I most comfortable, which includes church and clergy taxes because I was in that area as my church's treasurer for several years.