We used intuit turbotax online for our 2020 Fed and Penns returns. The PA dept of Rev sent us a letter saying they use box 5 income instead of TurboTax use of box 1.Why??

[Cofdcam2020]

Is this a known intuit bug?

[VolvoGirl]

Please explain more.  Box 5 and 1 of what form?  Don't they start with the federal AGI?  

[Cofdcam2020]

This is regarding regular income figures input from our W-2s.

Box 5 on W-2 is a higher number 'Medicare wages' but Box 1 is a net figure after certain contributions are subtracted. 

The TurboTax online software appears to have pulled the Box 1 figure as PA 'compensation'but the PA Dept of Rev letter says that the higher, Box 5, figure must be used.

The conflict seems to be between what the software is doing and what the state wants to be done.

Re: your question about start from federal AGI... no, thats not where PA begins. Do you work in PA or have any knowledge about PA state returns?

[SteamTrain]

PA does not exempt Retirement contributions (like 401k) from PA taxation, so box 1 of a W-2 may not be used.

I just don't know if there may be other CAFE contributions that PA does allow, so box 5 may not be correct either if PA allows some CAFE contributions (HSA , etc) to be exempt.

  IF a person both lives and works in PA, the proper PA income amount "should " be listed in box 16 as long a "PA" is in box 15, and that might match box 5.....(assuming the PA employer has done the proper calculations).

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Would need to get someone with PA software to check out exactly which box of a W-2 that the software actually used for PA (at a specific point in time).  I don't see a PA error notice in any FAQs about this when I just looked now, but that doesn't mean a software error didn't exist, especially if PA is just now catching up to it, "IF" it is an actual software error, and might just be starting to send out letters/notices.

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You would need to check with Customer Support about that issue when they open on Monday.  They can get a diagnostic file from your tax return and check into it  (Unless some PA expert knows now whether there was an issue).  Customer Support is only open weekdays now...and you can only get a telephone number to call when they are actually open for calls:

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/using-turbotax/help/what-is-the-turbotax-phone-number/00/25632

[SteamTrain]

Another thing you might need to check, is what exactly is in box 5 of the W-2 worksheet in your actual tax file.  It could be that your box 1 value is (erroneously) also entered in box 5 of the software form, when they are  different on your actual W-2  

This usually doesn't happen for imported W-2 forms, but people can make errors transferring the information in manually entered w-2 forms, or picture-transferred errors can happen if the person did not double check the info transferred from the picture.

[Cofdcam2020]

Thank you for prompt replies.!

I will follow up on Monday. It appears to me that the software pulled from the wrong field.