I'm filing my Georgia state tax return and turbotax is auto adding the 10,200 unemployment tax exemption, even though Georgia is not waiving this. What should I do?

[BillM223]

When you say that TurboTax is auto adding the unemployment tax exemption, do you mean added back on Georgia Form 500, Schedule 1, line 5? It's supposed to be - see the third item at the Georgia DOR website.

[gjsigns]

Thanks for the reply. I'm probably just super confused about it, but here's what I can tell to the best of my knowledge-

I had GA take taxes out on my PUA last year, and they took $1,071 out. Since GA is not waiving this tax I assumed I would not get any of it back. But turbotax shows me getting a refund of $1,071 minus a $405 amount. If GA is not refunding that unemployment tax, I don't understand why turbotax is using that number to say I'm getting a refund? 

Sorry if this made no sense!

[DanielV01]

We can't see your return, but remember that a refund is issued when you pay in more taxes than what you would owe on your income.  Again, I can't see your return, but $1071 state withholdings is a lot to have taken out on unemployment insurance.  With a little clarification we might be able to provide additional information, however.  Was unemployment your only source of income?  Approximately how much was your total income?  Did you have Georgia withholdings on other income also?  Getting a rough picture of your situation can help determine if your return is being calculated correctly.

[gjsigns]

You know, now that I'm looking at it, you're right that the tax taken out is high. Georgia took out way too much in unemployment tax. I just ran an income tax rate calculator and it looks like turbotax was doing it exactly right. I just assumed that GA was taking the proper amount in taxes, but it looks like they took more than double what they needed to! 

Thanks so much for y'alls help, I understand what's going on now. 

[DanielV01]

Glad to be of assistance!

[Kellywalker777]

Well, we didn’t catch the problem prior to filing and we just received a letter from the special investigations unit on the matter. We are not happy...we don’t like or expect to get letters like this when you guys are the “tax experts”. What does TurboTax plan to do about this?

[fanfare]

based on the accuracy guarantee you can get back any penalties or interest due to such an error if it is a TurboTax error.

Good Luck trying to collect.

[DoninGA]

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@Kellywalker777 wrote:

Well, we didn’t catch the problem prior to filing and we just received a letter from the special investigations unit on the matter. We are not happy...we don’t like or expect to get letters like this when you guys are the “tax experts”. What does TurboTax plan to do about this?

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What problem are you referring to?

If this concerns unemployment compensation, Georgia does not exclude the UC from gross income on the Georgia state tax return.  If you have UC excluded on the federal return the UC is reported on Georgia GA-500 on Line 9.