Turbotax is telling me I need to submit one, but I only made $28,000. I double checked all my numbers and then I downloaded a copy of the form and worked it out. After doing all that, my Medicare owed still came to the same value that I paid. I have two ideas for why it is saying it. The first is that I have a number in box 14. It is for $10.54 and is labeled as OBBBTT which I'm told means federal overtime compensation. The other is that my main source of income is a stipend as a university student and for that the vast majority of my wages are exempt from Medicare. The reason that I don't think option 2 is having an impact is because it is my fourth year having Medicare exempt income from working at my university and I've never had to do anything beyond a simple return before. Box 14 having a number in it is the only difference.
If you have any insights that would be appreciated since I don't have enough income to justify paying 49 additional dollars to have Turbotax do the form if I don't actually owe any additional money. Thank you!
You are seeing this because the amount of Medicare taxes withheld in box 6 is Not exactly 1.45% of the Medicare wages in box 5. Remove any cents for the Medicare wages and see if the upgrade message goes away.
OR -
Delete the w-2 and re-enter. Make sure the amount in box 6 is 1.45% or less of the amount in box 5.
I'll try that, thank you!
One last thing: when I checked it with the form, I had paid 179.93 into Medicare this year and 1.45% of box 5 was 179.926. Should I just calculate the exact amount for 1.45% and use that number or would that potentially open my account up for audit risks?
@dtp1018 Just calculate the exact amount for 1.45% and use that number. It will not cause the IRS to notice or make the return an audit risk.