TurboTax is calculated my total tax at more than $18,000. According to the tax tables in the 1040EZ instructions from the IRS, my tax is $4175. What am I doing wrong?

[TaxGuyBill]

Are you self employed (such a receiving a 1099-MISC)?
Did you use the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion?

What forms did you enter into TurboTax?
Did you check the numbers on the tax return to look if you entered the amounts for your income correctly?

[ttmkempke]

I think the problem is that I have a total of $14,615 in boxes 12a and 12b of my W-2.  I'm a machinist and don't receive tips to report.  Any idea why these numbers are listed on my W-2?

[TaxGuyBill]

In most cases, the numbers in box 12 won't change much on your tax return (but in some cases, you do need to answer some followup questions in TurboTax).  What "code" letters are in those boxes?

[ttmkempke]

It looks like there's a D in 12a and DD in 12b.

[TaxGuyBill]

"D" means you contributed to a retirement account (such as a 401k) and "DD" is the total cost of health insurance.

Neither one will change the amount on your tax return, so that is not the problem.

Did you enter any forms other than your W-2 into TurboTax?
Have you printed out your tax return to look at the amount of income that is reported on the tax return?  You may have just made a 'typo' somewhere.

[ttmkempke]

It's certainly possible, but when I zeroed the numbers that I had entered for boxes 12a and 12b I went from owing $12,000 to a $1700 refund.

[TaxGuyBill]

Hmmm, something is wrong.  In most cases, neither of those should affect anything.

When you enter them again, does the refund change to owing again?

[ttmkempke]

Yes.

[TaxGuyBill]

Wow, something is seriously wrong.  Although you could just not enter those numbers, I'm afraid of what else the program might be doing.  I'll let the moderators know about this, but you may want to call Customer Support.  Actually, I would recommend filing an extension and calling later this week or next week.
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[rjs]

When you enter the box 12 amounts in TurboTax, do not enter or select A and B from the drop-down list for the letter code. That's not what the 12a and 12b mean. Select codes D and DD from the drop-down list. Ignore the A and B. See if entering it with codes D and DD solves your problem.

[ttmkempke]

Thanks rjs.  I realized my mistake at the same time you were replying.

[ttmkempke]

Just in case anyone else is as dense as me, I'll hopefully be of some help by example.  You need to enter the LETTER CODE, not the box label from your W-2.  For instance, in my case, the letter code is 12-D and 12-DD, not 12a and 12b.

[TaxGuyBill]

I'm glad you were able to figure it out.   🙂