Uh Oh! TT What are you doing to me?

[marko]

Would someone please translate that into non-acronym English?

And apparently "TT" stands for "TurboTax".

Please tell me that nobody needs to know what "SS" stands for!

Here's a list of forum acronyms
https://www.early-retirement.org/fo...slang-frequently-used-on-the-forum-34884.html

 

[RobLJ]

I did a back of the envelope calc in December, but the Schwab brokerage numbers will determine how close I was--ordinary vs. qualified dividends versus ROC, etc. It's a lot of what used to be small numbers but now getting much bigger in the taxable brokerage. I think I will be within 2-300 bucks however. Not sure whether we can download Schwab into TT; I'll check but triple check if I'm off on the estimate. Since my 403b mandates taking out 20% for Fed taxes, it's a lot of money back (relatively for me, not probably for many of you.)

 

[JOBO]

Balances of my accounts and account numbers are not in my TurboTax info.

All that and more is on our credit reports including the name of our custodians, account# and balances.
The Credit Reporting Agencies sell our data and Equifax lost control of everyone's in a 2018 hack.

That's why its critical to place a freeze at the 5 majors
1. Transunion
2. Experian
3. Equifax
4. Chex systems(Banks and CU accounts)
5. Innovis
Don’t let yourself get tricked into paying for a credit lock or a fraud alert. Those aren’t freezes and will still allow the CRA to sell your data.

 

[Souschef]

Does anyone else like to input the numbers manually these days?

I do, because I trust the info I get directly from the 1099's better than any download.

 

[Gumby]

I also manually input all the data. It forces me to think more deeply about precisely what I am doing. Too much automation removes the taxpayer from the equation. In my view, taxes should not be a black box; you should know exactly how they are calculated and exactly where the data has come from and where it is going to.

 

[madatrub]

Ive found the download can be off on cost basis. I usually check these line by line. ESPP is one of the major offenders, here.

 

[tulak]

I also manually input all the data. It forces me to think more deeply about precisely what I am doing. Too much automation removes the taxpayer from the equation. In my view, taxes should not be a black box; you should know exactly how they are calculated and exactly where the data has come from and where it is going to.

I used to do this, but I (somewhat) refuse to do it now. I will still review the tax forms before filing, but I'm fine with "it's good enough."

<rant>
I had an issue this morning while filing. I had two 1099s for company stock (ESPP/RSUs). These all have an adjusted cost-basis. I downloaded the transactions, because I'm not going to enter 20+ entries (I used to do this manually, but no more). I update the cost basis for each transaction and double-check to make sure everything looks right. When I go to file, TT complains that I haven't entered an adjustment amount in the Capital Gain (Loss) Adjustments Worksheet.

I check and the first 1099 only has 'B' coded and the second 1099 has 'BN.' Why the difference between the two 1099s?

So I spent an hour reading IRS tax forms trying to figure this out. Time not well spent.

I figured it out, I think. The problem is with the 'N'. I went in and enter '0' for the adjustment in Part II Manual Adjustments, since I specify the corrected basis in Part III Specific Adjustments.

This is time I won't get back. I figure even if I did it wrong, it's a minor infraction and odds are I won't hear from the IRS.

I explain to my European family on what we have to do to file taxes in the US and they don't get it. Paying taxes should be a non-event, not the yearly tradition that we have in the US. Unfortunately, like many things in the US, filing taxes is a business that is driven by third party financial interests. I'm more than happy to pay my fair share, but they shouldn't make it this difficult.
</rant>

Going back to the TT part, I always skim over the actual forms before submitting. Due diligence and I want to make sure that TT doesn't do something stupid.

 

[BubbaChris]

My challenge with TuboTax Premier this year is the way it is handling ROTH distributions. Ours are Qualified (over 59.5 and the accounts are more than 5 years old). Yet TT still wants me to calculate out the contribution amounts left in the accounts, even though it has all that data.

Frustrating, but I'm over that hump now and ready to file once I review it with DW.

Best regards,
Chris

 

[Humbooster]

Turbo tax rant

Trying to file my daughter’s taxes with Turbo Tax Premier. All goes well until I reach the payment screen. In order to file I must log in to the intuit account to be able to use my credit card to pay for the filing. This is where the problems start, the next screen goes to:
[FONT=&quot]"Hmm... it looks like we’ve hit a slight snag[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Please try again or check back in a bit.[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]For answers to your questions, visit us at[/FONT][FONT=&quot] [/FONT][FONT=&quot]TurboTax.com/support.[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]If you can’t reach us online, give us a call at 1-800-4-INTUIT, and select the option for TurboTax."[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]And after that we go into an endless loop where I log out, try again etc.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I did call customer support, they listened, had me try a few things that did not work and checked with other support and discovered that there is a known problem with this. I got a case number and was promised to be on an email chain that would provide updates on when the issue was fixed. Days pass, no email, I install a couple of updates that do not fix the problem. Called back this morning and gave my case number, I am told it has been closed and shows that I was able to pay successfully. As you can imagine, this was news to me, so the case has been reopened but still no email with updates. Grrrrr.[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]

 

[marko]

So, how does this work?

Finished up my taxes today. Told that I need to pay $X. Ok.

Then, when I print everything out, I also get the quarterly estimated payment Vouchers. While I never pay quarterlies, what I see on each Voucher is an amount that adds up to $2X.

IOW, they are asking me, over 4 quarters, to pay twice what I owed this year.

Why might that be? FWIW, this year's income was unusually higher than normal but I can't make sense of this. Either way, outside of this year's payment, they're not gonna get anything more until April 2025, especially when next year I'll likely revert back to my normal income and owe half of what I have to pay now.

 

[GrayHare]

FWIW, TT's quarterly estimates have always been way high for me, so I've ignored them.

 

[Gumby]

Ignore them and get blank vouchers from the IRS website.

 

[marko]

Ignore them and get blank vouchers from the IRS website.

As I've done every year for the past 50 years, I'm going to ignore them altogether. I just refuse to pay quarterlies... I think about taxes one day a year and today was the day.

 

[MdaPetralia]

Ignore them and get blank vouchers from the IRS website.

IIRC, there is a way to modify the amount on the 1040-ES voucher in TurboTax.

Alternatively, you can just cross-out the original amount and write the updated amount on the voucher itself.

 

[GrayHare]

Encountered another stupid TT trick. While entering 2023 data, I wanted to review how I handled a certain tax item last year, so I started up the 2022 Turbotax. Nope, TT won't let me run it at the same time as the 2023 Turbotax. Yes, both copies are paid and registered. I guess this argues for switching tax packages each year.

 

[Peter]

Encountered another stupid TT trick. While entering 2023 data, I wanted to review how I handled a certain tax item last year, so I started up the 2022 Turbotax. Nope, TT won't let me run it at the same time as the 2023 Turbotax. Yes, both copies are paid and registered. I guess this argues for switching tax packages each year.

That's strange, I have both open and on my screen at the same time.

 

[badatmath]

TT annoyed me this year too I was going to pay for the first time to efile state . . . which I normally print but my printer has been acting up. . . first screen said $20 . . . next screen said $40 which annoyed me. . . and then I decided I'd mail it anyway but had a hard time convincing TT to let me change my mind. It kept saying I had to log in to efile and it didn't like my payment and I kept saying nope file by mail. It really really seemed to be trying hard to make me think I could not undo the choice. . . or maybe I was having a stupid day but it was irritating. I frankly spent way more time than it was worth to win this round LOL but I did prevail.

I then printed the the stupid thing at fed ex and mailed it.

Fed return was processed in a week I was kind of shocked. . . I don't remember it being this fast before but maybe I just didn't pay attention.

 

[GrayHare]

That's strange, I have both open and on my screen at the same time.

Here TT displayed an unclear message about needing two accounts to run both 2022 and 2023 TT. I didn't bother to figure out whether than meant two Intuit accounts or two operating system accounts or something else.

 

[BeanCounter62]

I have opened up TT 2022 several times while working on TT 2023 without any issues.

(The version downloaded to my computer - not online)

 

[Texas Proud]

Here TT displayed an unclear message about needing two accounts to run both 2022 and 2023 TT. I didn't bother to figure out whether than meant two Intuit accounts or two operating system accounts or something else.

Do you use the online version? I have desktop and have had 3 years open before (not this year as I am still waiting on stuff)...

 

[jazz4cash]

I don’t get this either. I run two years desktop HRBlock frequently. You don’t need to have two programs open and running anyway. You could open a .pdf file of the prior years return while the current year’s program is running.