I realize that I had a not common filing this. My wife had died earlier in 2022 so I was filing with an IRA turnover to my name. The 1099 form that I filled in (not available to download from Merrill Lynch) contained TWO Check off boxes in Part 7 of the fill-in form. For the first several attempts at filling in the 1099 I selected the first box to identify that the form was for a deceased spouse. The program now calculated that I owed 20 some thousand dollars since the program for some reason thought that I had taken the entire amount. By the way, I did not take any withdrawal. After several lengthy telephone calls with Merrill with no answer, I finally started going thru the 1099 keystroke by keystroke. I finally found the difference. The paper form only has ONE drop down box and the Fill in software form has TWO with identical dropdowns. Filled in the second box and my problem was resolved. The program now understood that I did not make a withdrawal.
THIS IS NOT WHAT I HAVE COME TO EXPECT FROM THIS PROGRAM.
Paying three fee's (1 - Federal, 1 State, 1 - State filing) is in my opinion just an excess. At least eliminate the State filing fee when a State product is purchased. This would be consistent with Federal cost free filing. I will be looking into other filing options.