Why would my 1040 show a 1 on line 11- Schedule 3? Excessive Social Security Tier 1 SSTA 2 W2 Employers, both within the 6.2%, Box 12 - D for 401K, IRS needs more info

[VolvoGirl]

If you have 2 or more employers (for the same spouse) there is a max SS for box 4 and you can get the excess back.  If you had more than one employer and the total of box 4 (only box 4 not box 6) on all your 2019 W2s for Social Security is more than $8,239.80 you get the excess back on your tax return on schedule 3 line 11.  Which goes to 1040 line 18d. 

That has nothing to do with W2 box 12.

[fval0410]

I filed as Single. The summation of Box 4 across both my W2 does not exceed $8239.80, not even close. 

Line 11 Schedule 3 ----Excess social security and tier 1 RRTA tax withheld  ----- 1.

TurboTax filing placed a 1 there.

[VolvoGirl]

There could be a problem if you accidentally typed Code A in for box 12.  Maybe you entered an extra box 12 with code A or you put an A instead of the D.  That can happen if you mistake the box 12 label for the Code letter.  

[fiorela0410]

I'm looking at my 2 W2s and what I entered into Turbo tax and it lines up. I'm not sure what would flag the Line 11 Schedule 3 to indicate a 1

Box 12 - Letter code— D  Elective deferrals to 401(k)

Box 12 - Amount

***HIDDEN VALUE***

Box 12 - Letter Code - No selection

Box 12 - Amount - Left Blank

[JulieS]

A common error that is made sometimes is with box 12 of the W-2 form. Box 12 has four sections on most W-2 forms, 12a, 12b, 12c and 12d. The amounts that you enter have both a dollar amount and letter code as well. 

If you have a number in box 12a, be certain that you don't enter the Code A for box 12, unless you actually have an uppercase A in that box. Code A is for uncollected tax and it will produce the line 11 amount that you mentioned.

So, I would carefully check what is entered in TurboTax, particularly box 4 and box 12 of your W-2 forms.

Also keep in mind that TurboTax rounds to the nearest dollar as per IRS instructions. 

[Swashbuckler]

I had same problem. My total SS is at 6.2% and below the $8239 (?) threshold.  I had two jobs, that is the only criteria that I had the fit this scenario, but I got a letter stating they need my W-2s within 20 days to show why I claimed $1. Personally, I think there is some kind of glitch. For me to get denied my return for this $1 flub up is lame. I was hoping to have my return much earlier, I filed Jan 27, I got my state taxes almost immediately. 

[BillM223]

There are two ways to approach this.

First, you can give me just the box 3 and box 4 amounts on your W-2s as well as all entries in box 12 on the two(?) W-2s. Please don't read your W-2s, but tell us what is entered in TurboTax. Perhaps this will let us reproduce the issue.

Conversely, you could send us a sanitized version of your return. TurboTax has a process in which you can create a copy of your return with all the personally identifiable information removed, and then you send us the token by which we can view it.

Please send me a diagnostic file which is a copy of your tax return that has all of your personal information removed. You can send one to us by following the directions below:

***Online Product***

1. Sign into your online account.
2. Locate the Tax Tools on the left hand side of the screen.
3. A Drop down will appear. Click on Share my file with agent.
4. This will generate a message that a diagnostic copy will be created. Click on OK, the tax file gets sanitized and transmitted to us.
5. Please provide the Token Number that was generated onto a response to this thread.

***Desktop Product***

1. Click into your return.
2. Click Online and select "Send Tax File to Agent".
3. This will generate a message that a diagnostic copy will be created. Click on OK, the tax file gets sanitized and transmitted to us.
4. Please provide the Token Number that was generated onto a response to this thread.

Let us know which options works for you.

[dmertz]

$1 on Schedule 3 line 11 is caused by TurboTax inappropriately rounding to the nearest dollar the amounts in box 4 of your W-2s before summing them instead of rounding the result after summing the unrounded amounts.  This causes an incorrect result when the two unrounded amounts each end with 50 cents.  Obviously the IRS is questioning this behavior of TurboTax but TurboTax Product Quality deems these incorrect calculations caused by rounding errors to be generally unnecessary to fix.  TurboTax has many similar rounding problems in other parts of the program.

The workaround is to lower one of the box 4 amounts by $0.01.

[VolvoGirl]

@dmertz  Thanks for a good explanation.  Would that still happen when all the box 4 total less than the max?  The users above seem to be less.

[BillM223]

Thanks, @dmertz. Good to hear from you.

Do you have an example of two such numbers? It would save me a lot of trial and error trying to reproduce this...thanks!

Or perhaps, @Swashbluckler, you could show you box 4 numbers with me?

[fiorela0410]

I discovered that mine was not a rounding issue. After about 3 hours on the phone with TurboTax support, I discovered my W2 populated a 0.00 in 2 boxes instead of leaving it blank--- potentially triggering a tech error for SSTA? The support agent explained to me they couldn't see the 1. I was referring to. The form I had right in front of me (1040)  generated by TT and submitted electronically to the IRS had a 1. in line 11 but they were unable to replicate it and said there was no schedule. 

Making me and the IRS feel crazy. 

I have no resolution. Had to take the conversation to the IRS  

[fiorela0410]

@Swashbuckler

I think you and I are on the same boat. 

I filed around the same time as you and received my state refund almost immediately. Got a letter from the IRS disputing $1 on SSTA. Two w2 and the SSN tax I'm claiming is no where near the max.  Turbo tax was unable to explain to me why they populated "1." line 11 schedule 3. They refused to believe there was a schedule A submitted and could not answer any of my questions. I spoke to 3 agents and the best I could get was "We apologize but we don't see a schedule A Line 11 and therefore there is nothing to troubleshoot. We can flag this a potential issue to our IT department if that makes you feel better. "

Now I am dealing directly with the IRS to reconcile the $1. 

[dmertz]

VolvoGirl, you are right, I failed to notice that the total was below the limit, so even if there was a rounding issue it shouldn't have caused anything to appear on Schedule 3 line 11.  In fact, I'm now not sure such a rounding issue can even happen with 2019 TurboTax since the SS tax limit is not an even dollar amount and it's extremely unlikely that the box 4 amounts from different employers would ever total exactly the limit anyway.  Perhaps I was remembering behavior I might have seen when experimenting with 2016 TurboTax , the last time the SS tax limit was an even dollar amount.   It's just that whenever I see what appears to be a $1 error and the situation involves adding multiple dollar and cents values together, rounding errors are a common explanation with TurboTax.  There are numerous areas in TurboTax where this sort of thing can crop up, but apparently not in this case with 2019 TurboTax.

If the current version of 2019 TurboTax is not presenting the problem, it suggests that there was some sort of bug fix along the way.  It still sounds like a rounding problem contributed to the issue, but not in the way I originally thought.

I'm curious how many cents are shown in each box 4 of each W-2 of each individual posting here.  If there are two W-2s, each one shows at least 50 cents but the sum of the two cents amounts is less than $1.50, I still suspect that a rounding problem was contributing to the symptom.

[VolvoGirl]

@dmertz   I couldn't pm you.  Could you look at this 1099R one?  I think he has a mess.  And the other SU isn't taking into account that he converted to Roth.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/retirement/discussion/re-401k-mrd-to-roth-conversion/01/1300647