topic Saver's (Retirement) Credit Calculating as Single, Not Married Filed Jointly in Deductions & credits

Saver's (Retirement) Credit Calculating as Single, Not Married Filed Jointly

DanRo — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 05:12:26 GMT

Only receiving half of the saver's credit even though filing MFJ. Can override Form 8880 but then get error for electronic filing.

Line 5b of Form 8880 should have $2,000 for both columns but TurboTax only fills in the one for "You" and not your "Spouse." This leads to only a $200 credit and not the correct $400 one. This did not happen in 2020 under similar situation. I believe it was correctly calculated initially but then I played around with various additional contribution to look at different scenarios and it got out of whack. The "Spouse" passed away in 2021 but that should not have an impact.

Your help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks,

Dan

Re: Saver's (Retirement) Credit Calculating as Single, Not Married Filed Jointly

SweetieJean — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 06:05:59 GMT

Your eligible contributions may be reduced by any recent distributions you received from a retirement plan or IRA, or from an ABLE account,

Retirement Savings Contributions Savers Credit | Internal Revenue Service (irs.gov)

Re: Saver's (Retirement) Credit Calculating as Single, Not Married Filed Jointly

DanRo — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 10:04:57 GMT

Thank you SweetieJean for answering!

There were no distributions in 2021 and only a small rollover in 2020 so this would not be the cause of the problem. The fundamental issue seems to be TurboTax not filling in the $2,000 for the spouse on line 6 of Form 8880 (sorry, original message said line 5b).

Any other ideas?

Thanks again!

Re: Saver's (Retirement) Credit Calculating as Single, Not Married Filed Jointly

Critter-3 — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 11:56:52 GMT

Did the spouse have any retirement contributions ? Read the line instructions carefully ... you cannot have a amount on line 6 for the spouse unless there are amounts somewhere in lines 1-5 ... this is a per person credit ... you each must qualify ...

Re: Saver's (Retirement) Credit Calculating as Single, Not Married Filed Jointly

DanRo — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 14:23:55 GMT

Spot on Critter, thank you!

Did not realize that this is a per person credit. No, the spouse did NOT make a contribution.

Thanks again!