2210 Underpayment penalty not using estimated tax payments?

[justme2]

So I thought I was pretty much done and was reviewing the final copies to sign and file, when I noticed that I had form 2210 attached for underpayment of estimated taxes.  

My wife is a salaried W-2 employee and I am self-employed.  I file estimated taxes, and typically, pretty much pay all 'four quarters' before the 1st quarter payment is due on Apr 15.  This is what I did for tax year 2018 - by Apr 15 2018, all four estimated payments of equal amounts were paid.  Additionally, I am getting a large refund this year, so there is no underpayment in total.

However, on form 2210, it seems to only be looking for my wife's withheld taxes and not my estimated payments.  At the end (line 9) checks to see if my total tax is more than just my wife's withholding and excluding estimated tax payments I made.  Well, of course it is!  Now it says I need to fill out part II for a waiver on the 'underpayment' even though I overpaid!  To make it even more odd, turbotax has checked box A saying I am requesting a waiver and it has typed in 85% wavier at the end (Remember, I am getting a refund).  What is going on?

[MarilynG]

It is possible to have an underpayment penalty even if you are getting a refund.  Check your entries to be sure your Estimated Tax Payments are entered correctly.

You can elect to have the IRS calculate your penalty and remove the penalty from TurboTax.  Type 'underpayment penalty' and 'Jump to underpayment penalty' to make the election. 

Here's more info:

https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/4242891

[justme2]

Thanks for the answer, and I realize that answer is pretty common, but it doesn't apply to my case.  In my case, I had made all the estimated payments before Apr 15 of 2018 (not 2019) and those estimated payments were sufficient by themselves to cover the total tax liability of 2018.  What I discovered was disturbing.  After I asked Turbotax to reprint the forms after an update, the 2210 form was removed and other items were inserted (like the DeMinimus safe harbor election).  This was quite distressing as TurboTax didn't come up with 'Hey, we made a mistake when you last printed, you need to reprint your forms!'.  In fact, it didn't say anything.  I found another thread discussing where the IRS was rejecting returns for filing 2210 with exemption A checked without supporting documents (as what was happening in my case).

This was a bug, which is not great but understandable.  TurboTax's lack of alert to their error wasn't acceptable.