Maine Student Loan Repayment Tax Credit Worksheet Not Calculating Correctly

[yeahhdad]

I got my Maine state refund today, and it was $1,000 less than expected. When I called they told me TurboTax is miscalculating the refundable credit if you claimed $3,500 for a STEM degree in 2022.

In summary, my wife has a STEM degree and took the $3,500 credit in 2022. Through my research, it appears you can only claim that $3,500 once, in either 2022, or 2023. If you previously took it, the credit is capped at $2,500 for subsequent years, the same as any other degree. 

Rather than TurboTax looking at last year's return and seeing that $3,500 was taken, and only put $2,500 as the credit, it put the full $3,500 again.

I just wanted to make others aware as this is likely going to cause some heartache as those with STEM degrees have refunds come in.

I'm not sure if this miscalculation is covered in any of the TurboTax guarantees?

[AmyC]

User input error is not covered by TurboTax. There is a limit and it is described in the program where you enter the eligible payments under Learn More.

[yeahhdad]

This is not user input error. I actually went back into my return to attempt to fix the form manually, and it will not allow you to. 

I understand the limit, but the program is prompting you to enter the TOTAL dollar value for eligible payments for the year. In my case, my wife had made around $3900 in ELIGIBLE payments. The credit is maxed at $2500 if you took the $3500 in previous years.

 What the program SHOULD be doing is looking at last years data, seeing that $3500 was taken, and place $2500 on the form. You then take the lesser of your eligible payments and maximum credit, and that is what you are refunded. This is 100% a programming issue. The only way to get it to fill the form out correctly is if I told it she only made $2500 in eligible payments, which would be false.