Tax help

[1yeartogo]

We are trying to do our taxes TurboTax is giving us an owed amount way less that TaxAct which says we owe a bundle. We have tried looking at both final forms side by side and can see the #s we have put in are the same on both but the figures they end up with are way different. (For example one says we get 1k child deduction while the other says 4K). One gives us a higher business deduction, etc. with the same figures.

Short of hiring an accountant is there anything we can do to figure this out. We aren’t sure which software is right and which is wrong.

[smock]

Um, this is probably not the right approach, but I'd file with TurboTax. Maybe add on one of those extra audit protection deals for peace of mind. I don't think you will be in trouble from filing with the most popular tax preparer even if something is wrong with their calculations. (But again, not an accountant.)

[AdaraMarie]

Anecdotes
Mine was a minor difference (around $30) between turbo tax and tax slayer this year. I knew I wasn't going with turbo tax because they would have bumped me into the more expensive fees but I wanted to figure out the difference.
I was able to find it and look at the relevant irs document, and turbo tax was wrong.
A previous year I had a discrepancy between my hand prepared form and turbo tax and I could never reconcile the it. The only thing I could come up with was that turbo tax was using a diffrrent tax table because that was the only difference in the numbers. That time the difference was a little bigger, maybe the $200 range. Enough that I could justify paying tt.
I would think you should be able to figure out the difference in the child credit calculation pretty easily. Do you know what it is supposed to be?

[1yeartogo]

Apr 5, 2021 17:47:17 GMT -5 AdaraMarie said:

Anecdotes
Mine was a minor difference (around $30) between turbo tax and tax slayer this year. I knew I wasn't going with turbo tax because they would have bumped me into the more expensive fees but I wanted to figure out the difference.
I was able to find it and look at the relevant irs document, and turbo tax was wrong.
A previous year I had a discrepancy between my hand prepared form and turbo tax and I could never reconcile the it. The only thing I could come up with was that turbo tax was using a diffrrent tax table because that was the only difference in the numbers. That time the difference was a little bigger, maybe the $200 range. Enough that I could justify paying tt.
I would think you should be able to figure out the difference in the child credit calculation pretty easily. Do you know what it is supposed to be?

Hmm I mean I have 2 kids and I’m seeing that it looks like the CTC is 2k per kid, so I guess the 4K is right? It’s just bizarre that they are so different it is over a 10k tax bill of difference. We have never ever owed this much, the TT # is slightly higher than last years but and the larger amount estimated by TaxAct is like way way more than we have ever had to pay.

[AdaraMarie]

So weird. I am not at tax expert at all and mine are not too complicated so I often run through them by hand as a check. Did you check your personal info as well as the numbers? Is TA thinking you are a single person with one kid or something?
In any case, I hope you figure it out. If most of your earnings are similar to last year it would make sense to me to use the one that gives you a similar result.

[puppylove64]

Since the child tax credit is showing differently: check that birthdays and social security numbers are in each software correctly. Also there is likely a question about does the dependent live with you and you fully support them. $2000 is the Max child credit, $500 is for kids over 16, or an ineligible SS.

For the different business deductions, compare schedule c and see if you can find the difference.

Is it just those two items making the difference?

[ohgillian]

That's really weird. I agree about checking the bdays and such about the children. If everything looks correct to the best of your ability, I'd just pay for the audit defense and file with TT. (Note: this is already what I do.)