Does TurboTax ok when paying AMT?

[Anonymous]

so we've been paying AMT for the past few years, and I'm trying to file taxes for this year but turbo tax keeps asking me for info from previous AMT forms 8801 that were not filed in previous years to determine if those payments are deductable....is turbo tax just really bad when it comes to high income people?? I think at this point I am going to bite the bullet and go to a tax person....ugh!!

[Anonymous]

we've never had a problem and we pay AMT.

[Anonymous]

are you paying AMT this year? I paid AMT last 2 years and this year I didn't due to hubby being unemployed part of last year. I clicked the box to see if the AMT from prior years was deductible and after researching it, this only applies to really unusual stuff like the timing of sales of investments and stuff like that. I just entered in zero and it was fine. My husband is CPA and he checked it over. I think you'll be fine using turbotax.

[Anonymous]

I agree. Turbotax is just trying to be extra careful that you don't lose any benefits but you can skip it if you want because it's highly unlikely you will benefit (and the IRS won't care if it it somehow turns out you would have).

It's sort of like the questions on tax prep/unreimbursed business expenses-- Turbotax will ask you about them but unless they exceed 2.5% of adjusted gross income you don't get any deduction, so it's usually a waste of time to answer those questions.

[Anonymous]

thanks PPs, so are you saying that AMT is usually not deductable? we've been paying it since 2007 and used a tax person one year, turbo tax online a couple of years and turbo tax desktop version last year and I think that is part of the problem, the info isn't transferring between last year's turbo tax into the online version this year. another issue is that when it does its review, its saying there are errors in the daycare provider info, its asking for a second provider name and I don't have a second provider, just one. I went back to see where it could be pulling this from and I can't find it....ugh.

[Anonymous]

We have paid the AMT for years and use Turbotax without a problem.

[Anonymous]

ok sounds like I'm doing something wrong then, thanks PPs!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:thanks PPs, so are you saying that AMT is usually not deductable? we've been paying it since 2007 and used a tax person one year, turbo tax online a couple of years and turbo tax desktop version last year and I think that is part of the problem, the info isn't transferring between last year's turbo tax into the online version this year. another issue is that when it does its review, its saying there are errors in the daycare provider info, its asking for a second provider name and I don't have a second provider, just one. I went back to see where it could be pulling this from and I can't find it....ugh.

I think I had that error on daycare provider too and I just split the name of the daycare provider onto 2 lines (they have a second line for the name but it's supposed to be there only if you need it). Very annoying (and I sent them an email complaining about it) but try that...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have paid the AMT for years and use Turbotax without a problem.

Same.

[Anonymous]

If you've been paying the AMT for years and have had no real changes in deductibles and only slight cost of living increases in salary, do you still bother entering all the deductions if it is going to ignore them in end anyway? The last couple of years I calculated our returns (on Turbo tax) both w/ and w/o the deductions. We owed the same in AMT both ways. Has anyone else had this experience? Sorry to hijack OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you've been paying the AMT for years and have had no real changes in deductibles and only slight cost of living increases in salary, do you still bother entering all the deductions if it is going to ignore them in end anyway? The last couple of years I calculated our returns (on Turbo tax) both w/ and w/o the deductions. We owed the same in AMT both ways. Has anyone else had this experience? Sorry to hijack OP.

Bump
I'd love to know the answer to this!

[Anonymous]

It's useful if you're planning on bunching deductions alternate years if you're low on the AMT scale, or for keeping track of how close you are to topping out. If your income grows year over year, you will eventually reach a point where your "normal" tax is higher than your amt

[Anonymous]

You may want to do a search on the TurboTax online forum about this -- you will likely find your answer there. Also, TT employees often answer questions there so they can tell you exactly how to do something.