Tentative Tax in TT

[Danny367]

I prepared 2 identical returns and, in the tax summary window, one shows "tentative tax" of $10,001 and the other shows $9,824. All other relevant values in the tax summary window match. Why would the "tentative tax" be different? How does TT calculate "tentative tax"?

[rjs]

It appears that "tentative tax" in the Tax Summary is the amount on Form 1040 line 16. It's not clear what you mean by "relevant values." Are all of the values in the Income section of the Tax Summary the same? If so, it may be that the two returns have different amounts of certain types of income that are treated differently in calculating the tax, even though the totals are the same. If the values in the Income section are not all the same, that would explain the difference in the tentative tax.

Compare page 1 of Form 1040 in the two returns line by line and see if there are any differences.