Retirement Savings Contribution Credit

[Retirementquestion]

I meet all 4 requirements of this credit - not a student, over 18, not a dependent, under the AGI limit.  I made 401K contributions in 2020 into a qualified plan.  I should be eligible for the retirement savings credit, but turbotax is not calculating it.  It skips right over this line in the deductions and credits section. It does not let me update it or edit it.  In the personal income section, I entered my 401K contributions from box 12 and checked the retirement plan in box 13.  The description says that turbotax will calculate this credit for me, but is not doing it. Is there a bug in turbotax calculating this credit?

[Mike9241]

we can't see your return.

do you have a $0 tax liability? the savings credit is non-refundable which means once your tax liability goes to $0, you don't get it.

form 1040 line 18 reduced by credits on schedule 3 lines 1 through 3

see if TurboTax included form 8880. this is the form for computing the credit.

[Hal_Al]

The Retirement Savings Contributions Credit (“Saver’s credit”) is very limited and is for low income people. See the table on  Form 8880: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8880.pdf

You, or your spouse, must  not have taken money out of a retirement account (including drawing a pension) in the last three years. See line 2 on form 8880.

It is not a refundable credit. You must have a tax liability to take the credit against.

TurboTax (TT) will check this automatically when it sees you made a qualified contribution. If you want to verify that happened;  enter in TT at:

Federal Taxes Tab 

Deductions & Credits

-Scroll down to:

-Retirement and Investment

   - Retirement Savings Contribution Credit

TT will complete form 8880, even if you don't qualify.  Reviewing the completed form 8880 usually explains why you didn't get the credit.