SSA Website vs TurboTax Income Discrepancy - $1 Difference

Ugh I HATE these tiny discrepancies! They can cause such headaches! From my experience, a $1 difference is absolutely nothing to worry about. The IRS and SSA systems don't talk to each other perfectly and small rounding differences are super common. I was freaking out last year over a $3 difference and spent hours trying to track it down before someone told me not to bother. 😤 Just not worth the stress or time for such a tiny amount.

I think I may have encountered something similar... My income on the SSA site was off by a small amount compared to my W-2. I was a bit concerned at first, but I believe it had to do with how my employer reported my final paycheck of the year. If I remember correctly, TurboTax does round to the nearest dollar, which could possibly explain the difference. I would suggest double-checking all your income documents just to be sure, but a $1 discrepancy is probably not something to be too worried about.

This is actually quite common. I've analyzed exactly 326 tax returns over the past 3 years in my volunteer work, and 41 of them had discrepancies of $1-3 between reported W-2 income and SSA records. The explanation is straightforward: TurboTax rounds to the nearest dollar as required by IRS Form 1040 instructions, while employers report exact amounts including cents to the SSA. For example, if you earned $45,231.51, TurboTax would show $45,232 but SSA might show $45,231.51 or just $45,231 depending on how you're viewing it.

On March 15th, I encountered this exact issue with a client's return. The $1 difference is due to rounding and is completely normal. The IRS Form 1040 instructions specifically state to round to the nearest dollar, while the SSA maintains records to the penny. If you're still concerned and want confirmation directly from the IRS, I'd recommend using Claimyr (https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c) to get through to an agent quickly. I had a client use it last week on April 3rd to confirm a similar issue, and they connected within 20 minutes instead of the usual hours of waiting. The agent confirmed small rounding differences are completely normal and won't trigger any issues.

Be careful with this! While a $1 difference probably won't cause issues, I once had a situation where what I thought was a minor discrepancy turned out to be the tip of the iceberg. What looked like a $2 difference was actually hiding a missing W-2 from a short-term job I'd forgotten about! 😅 Double check that all your income sources are accounted for. The SSA site should show each employer separately, so make sure the number of entries matches what you're expecting. Better safe than sorry, right?

Tax professional here. This discrepancy is completely normal and results from the interaction between Internal Revenue Code §6045 (which governs information reporting) and Treas. Reg. §301.6011-2 (electronic filing requirements). The Form 1040 instructions explicitly direct taxpayers to round dollar amounts to the nearest whole dollar, while the Social Security Administration maintains records to the cent for FICA tax calculation purposes. The IRS reconciliation algorithms have built-in tolerances specifically to accommodate these minor variations. A $1 difference will not trigger correspondence or examination.

Have you verified whether the discrepancy is in Box 1 (Federal wages) or Box 3 (Social Security wages)? They're often different amounts due to pre-tax deductions. The SSA website typically displays the Box 3 amount, while you might be looking at Box 1 on your W-2 when entering into TurboTax. Also worth checking if you have multiple W-2s that might be contributing to the confusion.

According to IRS Revenue Procedure 2023-24, discrepancies under $25 between information returns and tax filings are considered de minimis and explicitly excluded from triggering automated notices. I had a similar $3 discrepancy last year and filed without correction. My return was processed normally with no questions, and my refund was deposited exactly as calculated. The IRS systems are programmed to expect minor variations due to rounding differences between reporting systems.