How do I remove the Retirement Savings Contribution Credit?

[dmertz]

You can avoid getting the credit by telling TurboTax in the Retirement Savings Contributions Credit section that you were a full-time student, even if you were not.  Doing so won't affect your tax return in any other way.

The only reason I can see that you might want to decline the credit is if the tax reduction provided by the credit is less than the cost to upgrade to TurboTax Deluxe.

[DoninGA · Accepted solution]

If you are eligible for the Saver's credit it cannot be removed.  The Form 8880, Credit for Qualified Retirement Savings Contributions is created by the TurboTax software.

[dustin-delk]

Checking that I was a full-time student still removed the credit, however it still required me to attach a form 8880 and thus required me to upgrade to Deluxe. Even after pressing Clear and Start Over and then denying the Retirement Savings Credit, Intuit still wanted me to upgrade to TT Deluxe. Might be a bug.

[dmertz]

That's not the behavior that I see.  When I do this with a simple tax return using the online TurboTax Free Edition, initially indicating that I was not a full-time student, declining to upgrade to Deluxe, then going back and changing my answer to indicate that I was a full-time student, TurboTax permits me to file with the Free Edition.  It seems that there is either some other aspect of your tax return that is requiring at least one of the Schedules 1 through 6 that is forcing the upgrade, or perhaps you did not originally decline to upgrade to Deluxe when prompted.  If you did  not decline to upgrade and you've already upgraded to Deluxe, I believe that the only way to downgrade is to clear your tax return and start over.

[Edit]  Note that the Form 8880 may be present in your forms list visible via Tax Tools -> Tools -> Delete a form.  Even though it is present in the forms list, if TurboTax is not giving you the credit, TurboTax will not include Form 8880 and force Schedule 3 in your filing.

[Immisuccess]

Your post is incorrect and the original post of the other person "dustin-delk" is correct. Turbotax forces you to upgrade to deluxe and doesn't give you the option to remove the credit and file with free edition, even if the amount of the credit ($16 in my case) is significantly lower than the price to upgrade to Deluxe. ($110 in my case Federal & State included). This is a huge bummer, especially given that in my case, the Retirement Savings Contribtion Credit didn't change the tax liability nor the refund. Just put me -$110 in the hole.

[dmertz]

Changing the answer to indicate that you were a full-time student indeed allows Form 8880 to be removed.  However, if you've already upgraded to Deluxe, you'll need to clear your return and start over to downgrade back to the Free Edition.

[Metalgarn]

Absolutely a complete rip off that Turbo Tax forces you to pay $110 for a $200 credit.

This will likely be the last year I do business with them.

[Spurly]

use IRS free file program on their website through intuit turbo tax and it removed the upgrade fee for me

[DonnyK]

I'm tired of all the forced up charges and after using Turbotax since its inception, I'm looking to file elsewhere. 

[sam727397]

You are exactly right. Turbo tax does not give you the option to decline the savings credit thereby forcing you you to upgrade to the deluxe. The only way is if you omit where it wants you to fill in box 12a, 13 and 14. Read Turbo taxes disclaimer though as it states if anything you do is inaccurate or missing from the forms they have the right to cancel your return at any time. Do, essentially they have found a way to get money out of you. It is false advertising!

[tylerbren]

I'd rather not have the $90 credit and not pay Intuit for the extortion BS they pull on this.  I've reported them to the FTC for extortion and I suggest everyone do the same.  There should be a clear way to reject credits you don't want.  TurboTax is only doing this in order to extract money from customers unethically.

[ConfusedNany]

I can try that but can you got in trouble for doing that with IRS?

[ConfusedNany]

I can try that but can you got in trouble for doing that with IRS?

[JohnW152]

No, you won't get in trouble with the IRS.

There's no indication on your filed return of how you answered this question, this is simply a workaround to remove the credit.

@ConfusedNany