Social Security-The Turbo Tax software does not appear to be correctly calculating the taxable portion of social security for married filing jointly. Is there a solution?

[mrbillyo]

Thank you for your reply with the additional information, however my entry into line 2a is 0 and none of the exceptions listed in the 1040 instructions on page 30 apply to me. I would like to refer you, via this link, to the IRS.gov "Interactive Tax Assistant (ITA)": https://www.irs.gov/help/ita. Under Retirement: Pensions, IRAs, Social Security" Click on the 1st line "Are my Social Security or railroad retirement tier 1 benefits taxable" and enter the numbers from your TurboTax generated form 1040 in the interactive form as requested and view the taxable amount the IRS shows. In my case it is almost double the amount calculated by TurboTax. This by the entity whose algorithm is going to compare  their number to my electronically submitted line 6b. I still see a problem.

[rjs]

@mrbillyo 

The Interactive Tax Assistant is not part of a tax return. The taxable amount of Social Security benefits on Form 1040 line 6b has to be calculated using the Social Security Benefits Worksheet - either the one in TurboTax or the one in the IRS instructions. You started off comparing the two versions of the Social Security Benefits Worksheet, but you have gone off on tangents.

If your manual calculations on the Social Security Benefits Worksheet in the IRS instructions come out with an amount on line 18 of the worksheet that is different from the amount on line 18 of the TurboTax worksheet, we can explore why there is a difference. But you have to be clear and precise, and focus on the Social Security Benefits Worksheet.

When you refer to a line number, please make sure it's clear what form or worksheet you are referring to. Your reference to "my entry into line 2a" is not clear because a lot of forms have a line 2a, and the Social Security Benefits Worksheet is not one of them. And why do you say "my entry"? Are you talking about a form where you key an amount into TurboTax from a form that you received, such as box 2a on a 1099-DIV or box 2a on a 1099-R?

Also, you still have not said whether you are using TurboTax Online or the CD/Download TurboTax software.

As I said earlier, there are differences between the TurboTax worksheet and the IRS worksheet because TurboTax has modified the worksheet to handle some situations that the IRS worksheet does not handle. Among those differences, TurboTax has added lines 19 and 20 to handle the lump-sum election. What is on line 19 of the Social Security Benefits Worksheet in TurboTax? If there is an amount on that line it could account for the difference in the amount on Form 1040 line 6b. If you have an amount on line 19, what are the exact amounts on lines 18, 19, and 20 of the TurboTax worksheet, what is the exact amount on line 18 of your manually calculated IRS worksheet, and what is the exact amount on Form 1040 line 6b?

In a previous post you said that you think the root of the problem is a difference in line 3 of the Social Security Benefits Worksheet. Another of the differences between the TurboTax worksheet and the IRS worksheet is that line 3 is not the same. But if you think that's where the problem lies, what is the exact amount on line 3 of the Social Security Benefits Worksheet in TurboTax, and what is the exact amount on line 3 of your manually calculated IRS worksheet? What are the exact amounts on each of the following lines on the Form 1040 that you filed: 1z, 2a, 2b, 3b, 4b, 5b, 7, and 8?

Finally, let me say that it is extremely unlikely that the calculation of taxable Social Security benefits in TurboTax is wrong. The calculation and the worksheet haven't changed in years, so there's nothing new about it in this year's TurboTax. By now, any bugs that might have previously existed would have been found and fixed years ago.

[mrbillyo]

OK, starting from scratch - I am using TurboTax 2023 Deluxe Fed+State on a Windows 10 desktop PC
1) I just downloaded the latest IRS 1040 instructions and printed the instructions for Lines 6a, 6b and 6c on pages 30 and 31, and the Social Security Benefits Worksheet -- Lines 6a and 6b on page 32.
2) I then filled in the requested figures from my TurboTax generated 1040-SR.
3) The worksheet on line 18 showed that I should enter the taxable amount of $6,196 on 1040-SR line 6b.
4) TurboTax calculated the taxable amount that it entered on line 6b as $3,869.
5) The IRS Interactive Assistant (ITA) using the sane input figures showed a taxable amount of $6,195
6) For sake of comparison I purchased the H & R Block 2023 Deluxe Fed + State which I installed on the same Windows 10 desktop
7) The H & R Block returned a taxable amount of $4,798
😎 Both TurboTax (4/17-2024) and H & R Block (4/18/2024) had the latest program updates installed
9) The exact same figures from my TurboTax generated 1040-SR were used in all three trials
10) I was the IT manager for an auto dealership group for 22 years and can certainly identify when calculated results from the same set of data points are varying to this degree that something is amiss, especially when the agency charged with enforcing the law comes up with the same results via two different input methods. I still suspect that something is wrong. I'm concerned that your advertised guarantee of error free returns might have a problem.

[mrbillyo]

Hello: In response to your Saturday (4/20/2024) message I am going to apologize to you for a rookie mistake I made when I was calculating the value of line 3 on the "Social Security Benefits Worksheet" (both TurboTax and Federal). The dangers of doing detail work after midnight had me fat finger the values of 1040-SR lines 7 and 8 as additions rather than the subtractions they really are. It took me looking at the same forms 10 times before I saw what I had done. As it turns out the calculated value that TurboTax entered on my 1040-SR "Social Security Benefits Worksheet" line 3 was accurate. I am very sorry for any trouble this may have caused.