Line 16 (tax due) in 1010SR

[nmartens]

How does Turbo tax compute line 16 (Tax due) from line 15 (Taxable income).  I'm under the impression it uses a progressive algorithm based on the tax tables.  Here's my specific question.

My line 15 is $98,849.

Here is the tax table:

$0	$11,600	10%	$1,160.00
$11,601	$47,150	12%	$4,265.88
$47,151	$100,525	22%	$11,373.56
$100,526	$191,950	24%
$191,951	$243,725	32%
$243,726	$609,350	35%
$609,351	$999,999.00	37%
		Tax	$16,799.44

The right most column is the amount taxed at each bracket.  The last row is the final amount of tax owed.

Turbo Tax computes my tax due to be $15,696 (a difference of $1,103.44).

What am I missing?

Thank you.

[rjs]

That's not the tax table. The tax table is 12 pages in the IRS Instructions for Form 1040 and 1040-SR, pages 64 - 75. When you use the tax table you just look up the amount of tax in the table, based on your filing status and small ranges of taxable income, in increments of $50. It does not involve any calculation or percentages.

But the tax table is only one of seven different methods that can be used to calculate the tax, depending on what is in your tax return. Your tax return must require one of the other methods. The most common reason that you cannot use the tax table is that your income includes qualified dividends or long-term capital gains, which are taxed at lower rates. If you do have qualified dividends or long-term capital gains, your tax is probably calculated on the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet, or possibly the Schedule D Tax Worksheet.

In the IRS Instructions for Form 1040, look at the instructions for line 16. Starting in the right column on page 33 it explains the conditions for determining which of the 7 methods to use to calculate the tax.

You can see which method TurboTax used by looking at the 7 checkboxes in the Tax Smart Worksheet. The Tax Smart Worksheet is between lines 15 and 16 in the first section of the Form 1040 or Form 1040-SR Worksheet.