Reclaiming excess SS overpayment

[glpeters]

I am using Turbo tax Deluxe to file my 2021 taxes. I had a unique situation this year in which I retired from one job in March (with Triad), started collecting my pension, and took another job (with Kupono) in April. Because of this I overpaid my Social Security taxes by about $1800. When I go to the Turbotax website, it states in this situation I should be able to claim a credit on line 11 of Schedule 3 of my taxes. When I filled out my turbotax information, it stated that I should request a refund of this amount from Triad (a company I am no longer associated with) and does not let me request a credit or provide a schedule 3 with my tax return forms. Can you please explain this discrepancy.

[ThomasM125]

You should only need to request a refund from a company that withheld too much social security tax on your pay. Since you had two separate employers, they should have withheld the proper amount of tax and the excess should be refunded to you on your income tax return.

One possibility is that your total income is not over the limit for social security tax ($142,800 in 2021) and one of your employers did not withhold the correct amount of FICA tax (6.2%.) In that case, you need to get the over-withheld tax from the employer.

An other possibility is that you entered both W-2's under that name of the same employer. If so, then you need to correct that in TurboTax.

[glpeters]

To restate my question more clearly, I asked why the Turbotax website states that:

"For tax year 2021, you'll have excess Social Security withholdings if the sum of multiple employers' withholdings exceeds $8,853.60 per taxpayer.

You don't need to take any action. We'll automatically add the excess to your federal refund or subtract it from federal taxes you owe, whichever applies.

The excess will appear as a tax credit on Line 11 of your Form 1040, Schedule 3." (available here: https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/credits-and-deductions/help/can-i-get-a-refund-for-excess-social-s... )

I have this exact situation, having earned less than the $142,800 individually with each individual employer, but the total of the two incomes for 2021 exceeding this amount, resulting in a payment into social security exceeding the $8,853.60 per taxpayer limit by about $1800.  However, after completely entering my tax information, Turbotax did not enter a tax credit on line 11 of Form 1040, Schedule 3, but instead provided a message that I may be owed a refund of the excess from one of my employers.

My question was simply 'why the discrepancy?'

Based on the above Intuit statement, the response you provided, and further research from the IRS website Turbotax should have entered my overpayment as a tax credit as listed above. However, Turbotax did not do that denying me the credit I am owed. I believe this is an issue with the program itself and have tried to find a way to contact someone at Turbotax to discuss this issue but am having trouble contacting a real person without paying for additional support.

Subsequent to this reply, I again verified that the W-2s were under the names of the separate employers and I had done the math to verify the amount of overpayment.

If I can't get help with the program, I am going to have to do my forms manually and ask Turbotax for a refund.

[AnnetteB6]

The discrepancy occurs when it appears to TurboTax that you are actually in both situations at the same time.  Meaning too much Social Security was withheld in total and too much Social Security was withheld from a single employer (or what appears to be a single employer).

You stated that the W-2s are entered under the names of the separate employers.  However, if the Federal EIN number is the same for both of them, they appear to be the same employer with regard to the refunding of the excess Social Security tax.  Double-check that the same EIN is not on both W-2s.  If the EIN is the same on both W-2s, for some reason, then you must request a refund of the excess from the employer instead of receiving the credit on your return.

@glpeters

[glpeters]

Thank you. That was the issue.

I downloaded the Kupono information electronically through ADT. Somehow, the EIN number was the same as Triad. When I corrected it, the overpayment was credited correctly.