Why is Turbo Tax making me upgrade? Says there is error in W2 (too much withheld for SS), but the W2 is correct (SS withholding based on Box 3 and Box 7, not just Box 3).

[rjs]

What are the exact amounts in boxes 3, 4, and 7 on your W-2?

How many W-2s do you have?

Please double-check and make sure that the amounts in TurboTax are exactly the same as the amounts on the W-2 form that you got from your employer.

[Anonymous]

Box 1: $4,169.72

Box 2: $228.48

Box 3: $2,842.72

Box 4: $258.53

Box 5: $4,169.72

Box 6: $60.45

Box 7: $1,327.00

[Others blank]

Multiple W2s, but only one from this employer.  It was this W2 that turbo tax flagged and said I needed to get a ($8x.xx) refund from the employer and get an amended W2 from them.  Turbo Tax is simply wrong.  Including tips in SS (Box 7) is pretty basic stuff.  Smelling a rat/scam to force a $60 upgrade.

All #s on W2 are same as those put into Turbo Tax.

[rjs]

Thanks for providing the details. I did a test tax return with your numbers, and I did not have the problem, so it's not clear what's happening.

Please try something for me, on a hunch. The $258.53 in box 4 is actually 1 cent too high. It should be $258.52. Please try changing it to $258.52 and see if that makes the problem go away. I know TurboTax told you it was $82.27 too high, but just try what I'm suggesting as an experiment. I can't test it, because I didn't get the problem with $258.53. If making it 1 cent less works, you can file that way. The IRS doesn't care about a 1 cent difference.

Please post back and let us know what happens, either way. We've had a few reports of similar problems, and we're trying to pin down what's going on. We might have to ask you for more information to help figure out the problem.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the effort.  I tried what you suggested, but got the same result.

Frankly, I made a fool of myself by following the Turbo Tax advice of contacting my employer and asking for an amended W2 when they were right all along.  Not a great experience.  I had to give up and use H&R Block's program.  But thank you again for at least trying.

[kainr2003]

I had same issue as described and TurboTax CLEARLY HAS AN ERROR.  Hey, OK sometimes mistakes are made but it really looks like TT is negligent in ignoring on-going problem.  I have used Turbo Tax for many years.  Quite concerned if I cannot trust TurboTax to correctly calculate something as simple as SS withholding.  I erroneosly contacted my Employer for whjat was NOT A MISTAKE.  Is Turbo Tax fixing this?  

[DoninGA]

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@kainr2003 wrote:

I had same issue as described and TurboTax CLEARLY HAS AN ERROR.  Hey, OK sometimes mistakes are made but it really looks like TT is negligent in ignoring on-going problem.  I have used Turbo Tax for many years.  Quite concerned if I cannot trust TurboTax to correctly calculate something as simple as SS withholding.  I erroneosly contacted my Employer for whjat was NOT A MISTAKE.  Is Turbo Tax fixing this?  

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If the amount of SS taxes withheld shown on box 4 of the W-2 is not exactly 6.2% of the amount in box 3, you will receive the message that there was to much SS taxes withheld, even if by only $0.01 cent or fraction of a cent.

Removes the cents from the SS taxes withheld to see if the problem is resolved.

[Critter-3]

May I suggest deleting the W-2 and entering it again manually.

[Carl]

When you have multiple W-2's you have to add the amounts in the separate boxes of all W-2's and use those totals for each box in figuring out what's going on. I've seen numerous occassions where the amounts are correct on individual W-2's. But when you total up the boxes across all W-2's the amount of total SS withheld among all W'2" is to much for the total of box 1,3 and 5 across all W-2's.