In the following situation, TaxAct calculates tax owed at $1,393, but the case study spreadsheet and my hand calculations using the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gains worksheet come up with $782. What gives?
Form 1040 data:
Line 1: Filing Single
Line 9b: $1,700
Line 43: $17,078
Schedule D data:
Line 15: $7,558
Line 16: $7,558
Line 18: $0
Line 19: $0
Not filing Form 4952 or any other advanced things.
Any ideas why TaxAct would be higher? I was hoping to use TaxAct to file this year because it has worked and been cheap in the past, but this discrepancy gives me pause.
I've looked around in TaxAct and it is opaque about how it comes up with the $1,393 figure, so I can't really troubleshoot it. I could ask TaxAct I suppose, but I am *assuming* they can't chase down everyone's silly question and for such a basic situation they will surely think that it is operator error (and it may well be).
I could plug all of the data into TurboTax I suppose and see what it says. Haven't done that yet.