topic Turbotax says I owe money before I started in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Turbotax says I owe money before I started

jivemat — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:52:15 GMT

I just started my 2022 taxes on TurboTax online. Before I provided any information at all it said I owe $115. When I look for details this is under "other taxes" but it doesn't provide any other information about where this is coming from. Again I've given no information to the software yet so the values should all be zero. Has anyone else had this issue or have any insight into where this might be coming from?

Re: Turbotax says I owe money before I started

Critter-3 — Sat, 14 Jan 2023 15:28:36 GMT

Please ignore the often confusing "Refund-O-Meter" and only look at the actual form 1040.

As to why you owe ... a possibility was you had a retirement distribution in 2020 that you spread out over 3 tax years or you have a taxable state refund.

You can peek at only the Federal form 1040 and the summary of the state info by going here:

1) lower- Left side of the screen...click to the left side of the "Tax Tools" text selection.
2) then select "Tools"
3) then select "View Tax Summary" from the pop-up
4) then back to the left-side and "Preview 1040"

Then hit the "Back" on the left side to get back to your tax entries.

How do I preview my TurboTax Online return before filing?

You can view your entire return or just your 1040 form before you e-file:

Open or continue your return.
Select Tax Tools in the left menu (if you don't see this, select the menu icon in the upper-left corner).
With the Tax Tools menu open, you can then:
- Select Print Center and then Print, Save, or Preview This Year's Return to preview your entire return, including all forms and worksheets (you may be asked to register or pay first).
- View only your 1040 form by selecting Tools. Next, select View Tax Summary in the pop-up, then Preview my 1040 in the left menu.

Re: Turbotax says I owe money before I started

dmertz — Sat, 14 Jan 2023 15:32:39 GMT

About the only thing that would carry over from the previous year that would result in an Other tax is a 6% excess contribution penalty on some sort of roughly $1,916 contribution (Form 5329 Parts III through VIII). Check last year's Form 5329 for any excess contributions that were reported as not resolved by the due date of that tax return.

(Taxes on a disaster distribution split over 3 years would be an income tax, not an Other tax.)

Re: Turbotax says I owe money before I started

jivemat — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 16:46:14 GMT

You are correct. It is charging me a tax on an excess HSA contribution in 2021. Problem is I haven't contributed to an HSA since 2020 so I'm not sure where it is pulling this figure from. Note this only shows up on TurboTax and I did not use TurboTax last year.

Re: Turbotax says I owe money before I started

Critter-3 — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 16:43:13 GMT

Again ignore the oft confusing Refund-O-Meter and look at the actual form 1040 ... where did that amount actually come from ?

Re: Turbotax says I owe money before I started

jivemat — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 16:47:02 GMT

See my edited reply. I used your steps and found this poster was correct.

Re: Turbotax says I owe money before I started

VolvoGirl — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 16:59:25 GMT

You didn't use TurboTax last year. But could you have logged into someone else's account like a family member's? Did you transfer from the other program you used last year?

Re: Turbotax says I owe money before I started

jivemat — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 17:08:25 GMT

None of that. I checked my taxslayer return from last year along with my HSA documents from last year and nothing reported an over contribution in 2021. I don't have access to anyone else's accounts on TurboTax so I definitely didn't do that.

I resolved this by going to the HSA section and following the steps. For whatever reason it was pre-populated with an excess contribution of $1,917 for 2021. I was able to change that to zero and everything is fine now. Again, still a mystery as to why that value was there. I hadn't given TurboTax any info at this point and the HSA portion hadn't been started until I did it to report no contributions for 2022.

Re: Turbotax says I owe money before I started

jivemat — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 20:11:04 GMT

Figured it out. Last year I used taxslayer and did not report an over contribution. However, in 2020 I used TurboTax and for whatever reason didn't check the box that I was covered under a HDHP. So the contributions I made in 2020 of $1,917 showed up as an over contribution instead of a normal contribution.

So I guess what I should do is file an amended return for 2020 to correct that issue? It would get me an additional $115 from my 2020 return and not raise questions about why I'm not reporting it last year or this year.

After some more research I found that the stuff I striked through is incorrect. Turns out I used HR Block for my 2020 return and found an original copy of that. Everything was filed correctly and I did not have an excess HSA contribution. For whatever reason TurboTax imported my 2020 return incorrectly and decided the employer contribution from 2020 was an excess contribution. This is for sure a bug with TurboTax.