I put the the wrong net amount for social security 1099 because I thought the term net meant after tax and Medicare Part B. Should Turbo Tax have caught the error?

[Kathy106]

Apparently, Social Security has a different term for net that the rest of the world.  And, now the IRS is charging me almost $1,500 for a $500 mistake.  Should Turbo Tax have caught this? What can I do?

[Texas Roger]

A $500 mistake on the amount of social security entered would not result in $1500 of additional taxes. There must be something else that changed on your tax return.

[SweetieJean]

An increase in total income could lower some deducitons/credits.  But I agree that this looks wrong.

[SweetieJean]

Did you enter your monthly net by mistake?

[SweetieJean]

If $500 was the monthly difference, then that's $6000 a year, so $1500 of taxes seems about right.

[TomYoung · Accepted solution]

Clearly you manually entered the SSA-1099, and TurboTax can't read the SSA-1099 over your shoulder   The interview specifically asks for the amount in Box 5 "Total Net Benefits" so whatever you enter it has to accept.  How could it possibly know that you've not entered the amount from Box 5 of the SSA-1099 but instead entered your own version of "Net Benefits?"

The answer to your direct question as to whether TurboTax should have caught this is "No" and there's no way it can.

Looking at the SSA-1099 it's clear that Net Benefits is the difference between the gross amount paid to you minus any benefits you might have paid back. 

Tom Young