Form 2210: Line 8 is too small (check this entry)

[SwagginsB]

I am preparing our 2021 1040 tax return.  Last year we had a large refund (17K).  This year I'm getting an error stating the Form 2210 Line 8 is too small during error check.  It's  a large negative number (-19k).  Not sure if I should ignore this or do I need to adjust?  

[dmertz]

Last year's tax liability cannot be less than zero.  If you used TurboTax for your 2020 tax return, this would have carried over on the Carryover Worksheet from line 6 of your 2020 Carryover Worksheet.

It seems likely that you made an error by manually entering the negative value as your last year's tax liability, replacing the value carried over from your 2020 TurboTax tax file.  This entry is either 100% or 110%, depending on your AGI, of last year's tax liability.  Revisit Other Tax Situations -> Additional Tax Payments -> Underpayment penalties and correct the entry on the 2020 Tax Liability page by entering the 2020 value from line 6 of the 2020 Carryover Worksheet.

[SwagginsB]

Hi- Thanks for the quick response.  I had not visited the Underpayment Penalties questionnaire.  I went to it and the value for 2020 tax liability is -17,652 (prefilled by program).  That was the amount of our refund last year.  I also checked form 2210 and the value for line 6 is -17,652.  I didn't enter that figure manually, rather it was brought over from last years taxes by TT.  Should I just check the 2020 return last year for net amount of taxes paid?  If so where would I find that?

[SwagginsB]

That should be carryover worksheet line 6 is -17,652 (not 2210).

[SwagginsB]

 Ok...On further review it looks like our AGI last year was over 150,000.  I'm assuming my entry should be 110% of our total tax in 2020 (line 24 of 1040 2020).  If this is right I will manually change it.  Please advise.  Thanks.

[SwagginsB]

Apologies for the multiple posts but it appears the correct value of 110% of last year's tax liability is on Form 2210 line 8.  For whatever reason TT appears to have entered my refund amount for 2020 on the carryover worksheet line 6 (instead of this amount).  I will change it manually.  Could you confirm? 

[dmertz]

Regardless of how the erroneous value got on the Carryover Worksheet line 6, 2020 column, you should change it to show 110% of last year's tax liability.

If the value on the Carryover Worksheet in forms mode mode is shown in blue, it's been manually entered.  If it's the value carried over from your 2020 Carryover Worksheet, it will be shown in green.