Accuracy of on-line tax programs (pay, taxes, credit, dollars)

[jazzy jeff]

Using Taxact for a my fathers federal tax, I have come upon a calculation issue concerning how much of his Social Security benefit is actually taxable. Using the formula right off the IRS web-site I come up with about 6000 dollars of his SS as taxable. Tax Act is saying about 9000 of his SS benefit is taxable. Anyone have any experience or in-sight with this?
Also used a calculator off the website called CalcXML, which agrees with what I get from the IRS formula.

[korrosive]

I'd recommend running another provider with the same info (like TT, CreditKarma, or H&R). You do not need to pay for these if you don't file with them. You would simply be running all the numbers for a double-check. It would hopefully show you any discrepancies in the figures that are arrived at. Ideally not all of the providers have the same developers doing the programming for the calculations.

[rjm1cc]

I would send a note to Taxact so they can correct. I would think by now, if their program was wrong they would have put out a correction. Might check to see if your software is current.

In general I think tax software is very accurate but the problem is you may answer a question incorrectly because you do not understand the implications of the answer. Thus it helps if you have an idea of how your answers should affect your taxes.