AmyC,
You asked "Can you clarify what line of the form is the problem?". I'm not sure what you mean by 'what line?'. I encounter this issue while entering information using Turbo Tax Home & Business installed on my PC, as follows: Under the "Personal Income" tab, under the heading "Investment Income", for "Capital Loss Carryover", and clicking the "Update" button. Then clicking the "Yes, I'll review the amounts used to figure out my carryover now. (Recommended based on info we transferred from your 2022 return)." Then clicking "Continue", and a new screen appears ("Let's get some info from your 2022 tax return"). Then clicking "Continue", and a new screen appears ("Do you have different capital loss carryover amounts for AMT?"). Click "No." and clicking "Continue". A new screen appears ("We need one last item from your 2022 Form 6251, you used for AMT"), and it requires the user to enter "Alternate minimum taxable income (Form 6251, Line 4)".
Unfortunately Turbo Tax does not include Form 6251 in any of the numerous PDFs selections offered for download upon completion of 2022 taxes; instead, the user must know (a year in advance, while the opportunity is available) to search for this form, individually, and save it - separate from the PDF selections that are offered upon completing returns.
Nevertheless, picking up where I left off above, on this same screen ("We need one last item from your 2022 Form 6251, you used for AMT"), is a blue link "What if I don't have Form 6251?". Clicking this link open a box of filled with mostly useless (for the purposes of finding the needed dollar amount) and erroneous information, such as "If you think your AMTI might be different than your "regular" taxable income (Form 1040, line 10), you'll need to determine what your 2022 Alternative Minimum Taxable Income was and enter it here. If you don't know your AMTI, most people will get the same result using your "regular" taxable income (2022 Form 1040, 10)."
Notice how the last sentence includes a reference to "2022 Form 1040, 10", without even including the word "Line" before the "10" (how sloppy is that?). More importantly, Line 10 on 2022 Form 1040 is not AMT, not even close. Additionally, even if Line 10 were "Taxable Income" (which it is not), 'Taxable Income' is not the same as Line 4 of the elusive Form 6251 (at least not for my case).
This is obviously a neglected part of the Turbo Tax program, that has been deficient for at least a couple of years. Why would Turbo Tax need to send the user off on a research project to determine an amount that Turbo Tax had already determined the year before, and should have retained and pulled over from the prior year return? Also, why not include Form 6251 in the PDFs that are offered for downloading at filing time, so that the user will have access to it when Turbo Tax inquires about it the following year?
