turbo tax is saying i need to upgrade to delux due to having additional medicare tax (form 8959) . i do not have that, nor qualify for it. what am i doing wrong?

[CatinaT1]

Form 8959 is primarily triggered by high income, but it's also required by the IRS to reconcile any Additional Medicare Tax that was withheld by an employer, even if you do not ultimately owe the tax.

Double check your entries for your W2s. You could have a Box 6 withholding error or misplaced decimal point in Box 5 (e.g., entering $50,000.00 as $500,000) will trigger the form.

1. Go to Wages & Income and select Edit/Add next to your W-2.
2. Check Box 5 and Box 6 for every W-2 entered.
3. Ensure Box 6 is exactly 1.45% of Box 5. If it is off by a few cents (e.g., the W-2 shows $145.01 instead of $145.00), rounding it to the nearest dollar may remove the form requirement.

If the amount in Box 6 (Medicare tax withheld) is more than 1.45% of the amount in Box 5 (Medicare wages), TurboTax must generate Form 8959 to claim a refund of that overpayment. Even a discrepancy of $1 due to employer rounding can trigger this.

If your W2 entries are correct, delete the form:

1. Select Tax Tools from the left menu, then Tools.
2. Select Delete a form.
3. Find Form 8959 and click Delete.
4. Note: If the data in your W-2 still points to an overpayment, TurboTax will automatically re-generate the form during the final review.

[DoninGA]

You are seeing this because the amount of Medicare taxes withheld in box 6 is Not exactly 1.45% of the Medicare wages in box 5.  Remove any cents for the Medicare taxes and see if the upgrade message goes away.

OR -

Delete the w-2 and re-enter.  Make sure the amount in box 6 is 1.45% or less of the amount in box 5.