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daansley
New Member

There seems to be a bug on Form 6251 - Line 19. The amount is always $1,581 regardless of changing my 7 sources of income by +/1 $1,000. My total income is $275,000.

There seems to be a bug on Form 6251 - Line 19.  The amount is always $1,581 regardless of my income.  On Form 1040 worksheets, I've experimented by changing each of my 7 sources of income by -$1,000.  One at a time.  Line 19 always remains $1,581. My 7 sources of income on Form 1040 are: Taxable interest, line 8a. Tax-exempt interest, line 8b. Ordinary dividends, line 9a. Capital gain, line 13. IRA distributions, line 15b. Rental, line 17. Social security benefits, line 20b.  Total income, line 22 is approximately $275,000.


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1 Best answer

Accepted Solutions
dmertz
Level 15

There seems to be a bug on Form 6251 - Line 19. The amount is always $1,581 regardless of changing my 7 sources of income by +/1 $1,000. My total income is $275,000.

The calculation of the amount on line 19 of Form 6251 is quite convoluted, but I've seen no reason to believe that TurboTax is calculating it incorrectly and no expectation that any future update will change what you are seeing.

Passive activities are subject to loss limitations.  If your losses are limited, increasing the reported loss will not change the amount of your loss allowed for the current year and, therefore, will not change the amount on line 19 of Form 6251.  Instead, the amount of your passive loss carried forward is increased.

Because the allowed losses are calculated differently for regular purposes and for AMT purposes, the amount of unallowed losses carried forward for each of these purposes can be different.  Even if you have sufficient passive gains to be able to use all of your passive losses in the current year, including those carried forward, in the current year, you could have a amount on line 19 of Form 6251 resulting from the differences in the unallowed losses for each purpose in the carried forward from prior years.

This leaves a limited range of net passive activity gains or losses in the current year where a change in gains or losses will result in a change in the amount on line 19 of Form 6251.  Instead of increasing the amount of your current passive gains or current passive losses by only $1,000, try much large changes in either direction until you locate the range where the amount on line 19 of Form 6251 changes.

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3 Replies

There seems to be a bug on Form 6251 - Line 19. The amount is always $1,581 regardless of changing my 7 sources of income by +/1 $1,000. My total income is $275,000.

Have you run a software update?
dmertz
Level 15

There seems to be a bug on Form 6251 - Line 19. The amount is always $1,581 regardless of changing my 7 sources of income by +/1 $1,000. My total income is $275,000.

The calculation of the amount on line 19 of Form 6251 is quite convoluted, but I've seen no reason to believe that TurboTax is calculating it incorrectly and no expectation that any future update will change what you are seeing.

Passive activities are subject to loss limitations.  If your losses are limited, increasing the reported loss will not change the amount of your loss allowed for the current year and, therefore, will not change the amount on line 19 of Form 6251.  Instead, the amount of your passive loss carried forward is increased.

Because the allowed losses are calculated differently for regular purposes and for AMT purposes, the amount of unallowed losses carried forward for each of these purposes can be different.  Even if you have sufficient passive gains to be able to use all of your passive losses in the current year, including those carried forward, in the current year, you could have a amount on line 19 of Form 6251 resulting from the differences in the unallowed losses for each purpose in the carried forward from prior years.

This leaves a limited range of net passive activity gains or losses in the current year where a change in gains or losses will result in a change in the amount on line 19 of Form 6251.  Instead of increasing the amount of your current passive gains or current passive losses by only $1,000, try much large changes in either direction until you locate the range where the amount on line 19 of Form 6251 changes.

There seems to be a bug on Form 6251 - Line 19. The amount is always $1,581 regardless of changing my 7 sources of income by +/1 $1,000. My total income is $275,000.

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