Uh Oh! TT What are you doing to me?

[marko]

Odd thing.

This morning I finally got my 1099 Div and B from Fido. I had TT upload it directly and got one number. Tax due seemed just a little high but who am I to argue.

This afternoon, out of curiosity I wanted to see what my tax bill would've been without a TLH in Fido's B, so I deleted all my Fido uploads from this morning and then re-uploaded them again.

Now I got a much lower tax due...by about $3K. Now, like the man with two watches, I'm not sure what time it is!

I've double checked everything and all the boxes are filled and entered correctly.

Anyone else seen this? Ideas?

[EDIT] Edit because I can't seem to delete. I logged off and logged back in to TT and the original tax due is back. Sorry for being such a knucklehead!
Mods delete this post if you want.

 

[Marc]

I also got my last 1099 from Fidelity this morning so I went into TT. Three issues. First my tax due was over $2,000 more than my back of the envelope I calculated a couple of weeks ago. Second, the 1099-INT showed up as being downloaded but would not get added in. Third, I could not locate the actual forms before getting to last step.

I could not find that "envelope" from a couple of weeks ago so I just have to accept I made a stupid error. For 1099-INT I first deleted and downloaded again but still no joy so deleted and entered manually. I did finally find "tools" tab which had forms including worksheets.

I am sure glad that I had based estimated taxes on 110% of last year's taxes owed as I would have owed a penalty otherwise. I spent a long time also figuring out 2024 taxes as I really don't want to do 110% again this year as I know the taxes will be lower so I calculated a safe level of estimated taxes and completed EFTPS. Taxes submitted to IRS successfully and payment scheduled to come out of checking account 15 April.

I'm glad that is all done; now sipping a nice whisky.

Marc

 

[braumeister]

My guess is that problems like these are part of the reason TT has a big update to download nearly every day at this time of year.

 

[jazz4cash]

When I explore “what if” scenarios I always save a copy of my baseline and each iteration so I can compare line by line if necessary.

 

[frayne]

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

 

[GrayHare]

I don't like to, but do. Are the changing tax computations due to different 1099 data, or because TT was modified? February feels a bit early for TT's bugs to be mostly fixed.

 

[target2019]

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

I certainly do. I have limited entries for sales, so it goes fast.

 

[marko]

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

I tend to transpose numbers very often. 6532 can become [-]6532[/-] 5623 pretty easily despite triple checking. When dealing with the IRS, a low profile is always a good thing; no need to go looking for trouble. I'll let the software do it.

 

[statsman]

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

I wouldn't say "like". I would say "prefer". I have my numbers in a spreadsheet that I am updating as the year goes on. When I file taxes, I expect the final tally on the tax form to match my spreadsheet, or at least close to it. This year, I hit the number precisely. Having the numbers match up pretty much means I've entered in the numbers correctly.

A few years ago, we ended up with a smaller tax bill than expected, so I decided to track down the reason. Determined I was using worst case scenario in the spreadsheet with my DW's SS income and claiming 85% of it was taxed. It ended up being less than 85%, which in turn lowered our tax bill. My spreadsheet now accounts for this.

 

[Car-Guy]

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

Me.... Still filing hard copy too.

 

[aja8888]

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

Me, I don't trust the downloads.

 

[DuluthGA]

I got my FIDO this morning too and had H&R auto import and watched my tax owed jump a good bit. When looking at the detail I noted I had manually put in what I thought it would be so it doubled up a lot of my entries. Deleted my manual and numbers looked correct. Check for double entries.

 

[audreyh1]

We have too many numbers so downloading if we can.

I track our income in Quicken and review it very carefully the last weeks of the year, so I have a very thorough cross check available. DH runs TurboTax reviews 1099s and when he is done I check the results against my independent calcs.

 

[Sunset]

I'll use a download only when I don't have to enter in my password or username.
Some places supply a code to get the values.

Otherwise I'll manually enter the values.
My banks are simply entered manually.

 

[jazz4cash]

Hmm. I might just try downloading from Fidelity. I get about 5 1099’s from them so it gets confusing

 

[audreyh1]

We do a download from Fidelity. 3 accounts not counting the IRAs and HSAs. It works well. We haven’t had a download error so far and we would definitely detect it.

 

[Midpack]

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

+1, I do. Haven’t auto uploaded in quite a while, though it seemed to work fine with TT then. Ever since I started getting consolidated 1099s from VG, it only takes 15 seconds to enter manually even though I have entries in boxes many people don’t (according to TT), and I know exactly what’s entered in every box. Allows me to cross check with the entries I make in the withholding spreadsheet I use to (precisely) pay estimated taxes quarterly too. I enjoy following investments and doing taxes every year, a fun challenge.

 

[audreyh1]

Some years we have a schedule D several pages long!

 

[rk911]

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

I have always and will continue to enter the numbers manually.

 

[harllee]

I never download, I always enter my numbers manually. Just don't trust the download and don't want to enter my passwords.

 

[N02L84ER]

I never download, I always enter my numbers manually. Just don't trust the download and don't want to enter my passwords.

+1

 

[monte1022]

I've had two issues with TT this year, the second of which motivated me to buy H&R's program. I was pleasantly surprised at how well H&R handled my less common, but certainly not unique situations. I may be a convert after 25 years with TT.

 

[rk911]

I've had two issues with TT this year, the second of which motivated me to buy H&R's program. I was pleasantly surprised at how well H&R handled my less common, but certainly not unique situations. I may be a convert after 25 years with TT.

What were the issues? Others may benefit.

 

[monte1022]

The first had to do with confusion about adding my dependent's income to ours for ACA purposes. TT's explanation was unclear whereas H&R's was crystal clear including all of the times one would add a dependent's income complete with the actual income levels the would trigger the addition. There is a thread started by me earlier this week about this. The biggie came last night when I realized that DW had an excess HSA contribution in 2022. The tax owed box showed $9 before entering anything into TT, but after transferring last years data. TT handled the excess by trying roll it into 2023, therefore making the program think that we had a high deductible plan for 2023. For 2022, only DW had a high deductible plan. We actually had employer sponsored insurance for Jan, Feb, then a regular ACA plan through Dec for 2023. On error check I kept getting a question about whether this was an inherited HSA and another about who was covered by the non existent high deductible plan in 2023. This was the loop without a way out. Both errors prevented me from efiling. H&R took on the problem by asking very specific questions about coverage periods, HSA balances, etc making it obvious that the programmers had a clear understanding of excess contributions and how to handle them on tax forms. TT did not offer any explanation or solution to the problem.


PS. I started with TT deluxe and upgraded to Premier for $35 thinking that would help. $54 for H&R premium fed + state did the trick.

 

[dmpi]

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

I do because I don't trust turbo tax to have access to my brokerage account.