Colorado Pension and Annuity Exclusion pre-populates values that completely ignore the Colorado law on exclusion limitations. How do I report that bug?

[mex_man]

On the Pension and Annuity page TurboTax assigned a value of $34,878 to my "qualifying Pension and Annuity Income" when the limit is clearly $20,000 for me (see https://tax.colorado.gov/retirees ) and assigned $2482 to my wife when she actually had $23,202.  Where is TurboTax getting this information internally, and why is it suggesting an exclusion amount above the legal limit?

[AmyC]

On the Colorado Pension Exclusion Worksheet, the bottom line 6, should be showing the $20,000 limit on yours. It is showing on mine. However, why  your wife shows such an odd amount is another story. Since my program is working correctly, I can't diagnose your issue without your help. You can send us a “diagnostic” file that has your “numbers” but not your personal information.  If you would like to do this, here are the instructions: 

If you are online, go to tax tools>tools > share file with agent > 6 digit number pops up.

If on desktop, go to online >send tax file to agent > number pops.

Reply with # here and @AmyC please

[mex_man]

Thank, you.    I did some research on the Colorado state government website, and entered the legally allowed data by hand before I saw your reply, so I'm not sure that sending the diagnostic file is of use to you anymore. Please let me know if it is.

I still contend that TurboTax should never have shown more than the legally allowed limit in the guided interview.  You are right that on the Colorado Pension Exclusion Worksheet it does show the $20,000 limit (but is that because I put the proper data in the guided interview?).  There is just no excuse for displaying a number greater than legally allowed limit as eligible for exclusion. That money is not "eligible" even if it is in the qualifying category. 

Further, for my wife's value, it was showing only her pension, and not her private annuity income (which is an allowed exclusion in Colorado), and it failed to pick up her Federally taxed Social Security income that had been entered in the Income section -- also allowed under Colorado law.  Therefore, the program has a bug (or many)  and is not working correctly. Let me know if you still think a file is of value.

- mex_man

[AmyC]

I will agree the wording is awkward when it says eligible and really means total of amounts that individually are eligible. I still can't understand your wife's information not carrying properly. Since my program is updated and running correctly, I don't know that a file from you would help. But if I understand you correctly, you went into forms mode and have everything straightened out now. If you did some overrides in the forms section, that will void the accuracy guarantee. Go back through the section in step by step and see if the program will pick it up. Then go back to forms mode and see if you can cancel the override and the program still hold the correct information. 

[mex_man]

I never did change anything in the forms view tho' I looked there to see if I could understand why TurboTax was overlooking the Social Security and pension. My wife's Social Security data was already in the proper place on the exclusion worksheet so I went back to the step-by-step interview and simply entered the proper data into the data-entry fields. Never did figure out why it wasn't displaying in the interview section.  Both the forms mode and the program seem to have the right data, and my allowed amount was properly limited due to my age.  Thanks for your support through this.  I think it has all come out in the wash but I still believe the way TurboTax walks you through it is confusing.