So frustrating. TurboTax has somehow calculated that I owe a WIDELY inaccurate amount to one state due to gambling wins and I can't figure out why...

[pixienerd44]

The obvious answer is that I must have entered something in wrong somewhere but I've redone it over and over and can't figure out what the issue is. Meanwhile, I entered the EXACT SAME INFORMATION over on HR Block and got the expected and correct numbers (based on common sense and very similar numbers I had last year). I would just file my taxes over at HR Block but I stupidly already paid for TurboTax and I don't want to pay again if I can avoid it. (They wont give me a refund. I already asked.)

My tax situation this year is fairly straightforward. I lived and worked in the same state all year (Michigan), at the same company. The only complication is that I gambled at a casino in a neighboring state (Wisconsin) and won three times, which added up to about $5,000 total in winnings (each win was just barely over the taxable amount). The casino I won at withheld state and federal taxes at my request each time I won because I didn't want to have to deal with paying in at tax time. I did not otherwise live in or earn any income in Wisconsin, and yet TurboTax somehow thinks I owe Wisconsin over $1,700 in state taxes. This is laughably wrong. I won a very similar amount at the exact same casino last year and ended up getting a $300 refund from Wisconsin. HR Block thinks I should be getting a $200 refund this year, which is about what I expected. There is no possible way I should owe $1,700 on $5,000 worth of wins, especially since I already paid the taxes on it when I won it.

I just can't figure out where the error is, or if it's even on my end. I literally copied and pasted the information I entered into TurboTax onto HR Block so the numbers are identical; the federal tax refund matches, the Michigan tax owed matches, but TurboTax insists I owe Wisconsin $1,700+ while HR Block thinks Wisconsin should refund me $200+. I fiddled with different options on TurboTax and the only thing that makes my amount owed go away is removing the 3 W-2G (gambling winning) forms I filled out for Wisconsin. I suspect there's either an error somewhere on these forms (even though I've gone over them a dozen times now and can't find anything) or TurboTax thinks I lived in or worked in Wisconsin at some point even though I made sure to select that I absolutely did not at every opportunity they gave me.

Another weird thing going on (that could be part of the problem?) is that when I'm prompted to enter how much of my total gambling winnings were won in Wisconsin vs. Michigan and click to go to the next page, it just takes me back to the exact same page, with the number I just entered still there. I have to click again to get to a different page. Weird. I'm re-reading this twin page now to make sure I'm not missing anything and as far as I can tell, I'm not. It's the exact same page. I wonder if it's some kind of glitch or maybe I'm losing my mind because I've been staring at these numbers and boxes for 6 hours trying to figure out a problem that may not even be fixable on my end.

[pixienerd44]

Alright, plot twist: I tried removing a W-2G form for a gambling win I won in MICHIGAN, the state I live and work in, and that also affected how much I owed in WISCONSIN, a state I have only ever visited a handful of times. That's not right, is it? Why would winning money in Michigan, my home state, affect my tax refund in Wisconsin? I don't live in Wisconsin. I don't work in Wisconsin. I don't even think about Wisconsin most of the time. (No offense to anyone who lives in Wisconsin.)

It's almost 3 in the morning where I'm at and my brain is fried so if anyone has any ideas why this is happening, please let me know. It's probably something obvious and I just can't figure it out.

[SteamTrain]

@pixienerd44 

Usually, the issue is one in which you have not gone thru the entire WI Non-Resident state's interview yet.  During that WI interview you must "Allocate" what income is subject to WI taxes (i.e. only the WI gambling income).  Until you do that, WI assumes all your yearly income is WI-taxable.

So, as you prepare your Federal taxes, and add income there (including add/remove the MI-W-2G)...the WI taxes due change too....because you have not done the allocations yet.

______________________

the best procedure is to fully prepare your Federal forms,  and ignore the states parts until every scrap of your Federal income, deductions, Credits are complete and ready to file.....every scrap (but not yet filed)

Then go thru the WI non-resident interview to do the allocations to indicate just that gambling income as WI-taxable....then your MI state resident tax return last.

________________

If you go back to the Fed forms later, and make any changes in there, then the allocations you may have done previously for WI, may no longer be valid (depends on what you change), and you might have to go thru the WI interview, from start to finish again.

[pixienerd44]

Thank you for taking the time to reply! I initially filled everything out in the correct order (Federal Tax Return, then Wisconsin, then Michigan) and made it as far as I could without actually filing (I even paid for TurboTax Deluxe, which I deeply regret doing now) but the number for Wisconsin did not change. TurboTax continued to believe that I owe almost $2,000 to the state. I can no longer scrap everything and start over because TurboTax doesn't allow you to start from scratch after paying but I've tried "redoing" it from the beginning numerous times and still nothing changes.

The allocation page that you mentioned is the page that might be malfunctioning somehow. The page asks me to enter any non-wage income I made outside of Wisconsin as a nonresident. Of the $18,230 I made gambling last year, $5,781.50 of it was made in Wisconsin and $12,448.50 was made in Michigan. I entered the $12,448.50 number in the box, as that is what I made outside of Wisconsin. When I click to go to the next page, it loads up this exact same page again, asking the same exact question, with the number I already entered still in the box. I then have to click once again to go to a new page. I wonder if this is where the error is coming from but I could be wrong. I did try a different browser and the same thing occurred there as well.

I also tried entering different numbers aside from the correct $12448.50 number and the amount owed to Wisconsin never changes UNLESS I enter the entire amount. If I say that the entire $18,230 was made in Michigan and NOTHING was made in Wisconsin, TurboTax suddenly thinks I'm owed a refund of $401 from Wisconsin, which is the amount the casino withheld to cover Wisconsin state taxes back when I won it. Obviously I shouldn't be getting that full amount back but I should be getting a little bit of it back ($183, according to HR Block).

I definitely think you're right in that TurboTax wrongly assumes that all my yearly income is WI-taxable and that's why they mistakenly believe I owe almost $2,000 to Wisconsin. I just can't seem to get the program to stop believing that. Nothing I'm entering has an effect unless I blatantly lie and say I made nothing at all in Wisconsin.

Last year, I had a very similar income situation (casino winnings in both Michigan and Wisconsin, but only ever a resident/worker in Michigan) and I did not have any problems at all using TurboTax for my tax returns. Everything went smoothly. This year, TurboTax simply will not give me an accurate number for Wisconsin state. Very strange and frustrating, especially since they refuse to refund me for inaccurate forms I cannot use.

[SteamTrain]

@pixienerd44 

Well, I can't explain that except for the following  (I don't have the WI forms r...Don't know of any helpers in here that might use WI forms)

...... BUT..........

I checked the following URL for WI Forms availability, and an unusually huge number of them will not be ready for use until 13 FEBRUARY.  Including the non-resident forms.    So it may be misbehaving because a bunch of links, between the various fields you need, are simply not activated yet...or a re misdirected to the wrong spot since the final forms are simply not in the software yet.   Not sure why so many are so late...unless WI made some major changes to their forms really late in the year.

https://form-status.app.intuit.com/tax-forms-availability/formsavailability?albRedirect=true&product...

About all you can do is wait until after 13 Feb, and then go thru those allocations again....and if still wrong, call customer support.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/account-management/contact-turbotax/L2y9...