TTax H&B 2021 will not accept an SSA-1099 that is entirely repayments made to SSA

[Thad]

Situation & goal:
- Benefits paid Box 3=0; (2020) Benefits Repaid Box 4=$5,000; Net Benefits for 2021=$-5,000
- TTax should (!) do an IRS Pub 15 "Repayments More Than Gross Benefits" calculation using TTax "Earlier Year Lump-Sum Social Security Worksheet" etc
      -- Since repayment was over $3,000, that will lead to a decreased 2021 tax using what the 2020 tax would have been if the Lump-Sum had not been paid in 2020

Apparent bug(s):
- Interview mode:
      -- If I enter Box 5 as $-5,000, TTax will warn then allow it, but then NOT continue to the question about Lump-Sums
      -- Same is true for any Box 5 entry I try that is 0 or negative
- Forms mode:
      -- I can then go to the SS "Benefits Worksheet" and there trigger a new "Earlier Year Lump-Sum Benefits Smart Worksheet" for 2020 and enter the $-5,000 in A, and fill B and two worksheets below
      -- TTax says no errors, but leaves all calculated values 1 to 21 blank
      -- Then, on the SS "Benefits Worksheet", all calculated values 2 to 20 are left blank
- Override attempt:
      -- Even if I try overriding and doing every missing calculation myself, TTax won't let me carry those overrides to the 1040, so I can't file a return

Wait for an Intuit fix? Another workaround I hadn't tried?

[rjs · Accepted solution]

The Earlier Year Lump-Sum Social Security Worksheet has nothing to do with a repayment. That worksheet is for a lump sum payment from Social Security to you for an earlier year. That's not what you have. You have a claim of right repayment. TurboTax does not calculate the deduction or credit for a negative amount in Form SSA-1099 box 5. It's in the list of unsupported calculations. See the following FAQ for how to handle it.

What is a claim of right repayment?

[Thad]

Thx, I now see that TTax has made Lump-Sum Social Security repayments an unsupported calculation, and your FAQ and forum posts explain a way to do it -- appreciated!

Two quick comments about the documentation:
- The FAQ instruction to enter (something) on Worksheet line H seems to mess up the numbers, and "RaifH (Employee Tax Expert)"'s recent post says to ignore H
- There seems to be out-of-date documentation in TTax "On Demand Tax Guidance" Schedule 3 Line 13z that refers to Schedule 5 line 74d and printing the text "I.R.C. 1341"

Interesting, but presumably correct, that TTax does not transfer the negative SSA-1099 Box 5 "Net Benefits" to 1040 Line 6a.