Estimated Tax Penalty Left Off Turbo Tax Return?

[theslagers]

I've used TT for several years and previously it always automatically calculated the estimated tax penalty due as part of our return. For some reason this year, it left it off and we certainly owe it.  Line 38 is $0 and I can't find that 2210 form that I think is involved. (No worries - the IRS calculated it and has told me what we owe as our penalty!)

I'm just curious as to what I did this year to omit that from calculating automatically. I'm a pretty seasoned user - or so I thought - so this is really bugging me. The only thing I remember remotely related to this topic  at the time of filing was moving up my payment date for tax due because it made it slightly smaller. In my mind, this made sense as I know the penalties are based on some arbitrary date or calculation so the sooner we pay, the less we should owe. (But no, I didn't actually check the mechanics or notice that line 38 was now $0!)

Any help? I'm in agreement that we owe the estimated tax penalty, just not sure why this year TT didn't correctly calculate it for me. Don't want to make the same mistake in future if we owe again.

[LenaH · Accepted solution]

As you were going through the screens of your federal return, you might have seen an option to have the IRS figure out the penalty, rather then TurboTax calculating it for you. The election to have TurboTax not calculate the penalty may have been selected in error. You can go back to elect TurboTax to calculate the estimated penalty for you.

To review your underpayment and change your election, please follow the instructions below:

1. Open your return.
2. Search for underpayment penalty with the magnifying glass tool at the top of the page.
3. Select the Jump to link at the top of the search results.
4. Follow the on-screen instructions. 

[theslagers]

I bet that's it. Thanks for the explanation!