After I filed my return, I noticed that line 38 included penalty/interest of $550, which I now see from the "Tax History Report" is a penalty related to Form 2210, which is triggered by inadequate estimated income tax payments. My income varied substantially from period to period, due principally to conversions from my Traditional to my ROTH IRA, most of which occurred during the fourth quarter of the year. I made sure my fourth-quarter estimated tax payment resulted in a substantial refund, but I nonetheless got stuck with the penalty. I am now preparing to file an amended return including Form 2210 in an effort to recoup part of that $550 penalty. But what I don't understand is how Turbotax could have let me incur that penalty without at least cautioning me that I needed to investigate the possibility of incurring a penalty, and ideally requesting information on the timing of my income and payments that would allow it to determine whether a penalty would result, and if so, how much that penalty would be, i.e., generate a Form 2210. This might have been triggered by looking at the variability of my estimated income tax payments, which ranged from $3,500 to $85,000. I am aware that each year's return provides an estimate of required "quarterly" estimated income tax payments for the next year, but that is useless given the variability of my Traditional IRA distributions. Incidentally, I am an economist, so this is of professional as well as personal interest. Thank you for any light you can shed on this.
