Recalculating Your Return

The H&R Block software recalculates the entries on a tax form each time you:

• Open or close the form

• Change an entry in a field on the form

• Press Tab or Enter to move to the next field on the form  

To recalculate all tax forms do one of the following:

• Click Recalculate on the tool bar of the Forms Central window.

• From the Tools menu, choose Recalculate.

Why didn't the figures carry over?

It may be necessary to recalculate the tax return in order to see the effects of an entry you made. For example, you enter wages of $35,000 on your W-2 box 1. Next, you enter your itemized deductions on Schedule A. When you display Schedule A, you find that line 2, which you expect to display an entry from line 38 of Form 1040, is blank.

It was not on Schedule A because the wage entry from Form W-2 goes first to Form 1040, then to Schedule A. By navigating directly to Schedule A, you bypassed the calculation (and therefore the updating) of Schedule A.

But the recalculate option performs all necessary calculations and sets everything right.