Amend state return after receiving reduced refund due to denied Retirement Exclusion Claim

[vjokubaitis]

I completed and filed my NJ 2018 state return using TurboTax Deluxe 2018 on time and was entitled to a refund. The state eventually direct-deposited a refund that was less than the amount on the filed return and provided an explanation that a Retirement Income Exclusion that was claimed had been denied. I went back over the return and realized that I had answered one question incorrectly, which led to the denial. If I had answered the question correctly, the amount of the refund on the return would have matched the lesser refund I actually received.

Two questions: should I file an amended return to correct my original mistake; and how do I get TurboTax to show a net zero tax liability or refund on the amended return, rather than show an amount due that is equal to the difference between what the return said the refund should be and what the state actually refunded to me? The state already withheld the difference before depositing the refund and I don't want to be held liable for an amount that's already been taken into account.

[rjs]

Do not file an amended return. The state has already made the correction.

When you do your 2019 tax returns, be careful about possible wrong information being transferred from 2018. The state refund amount that transfers will be the amount from the return that you filed, not the corrected amount. And, depending on what the question was that you answered incorrectly, the wrong answer might transfer to 2019. You will be able to correct these items when you do your 2019 returns, but if you want to you could make the change in your 2018 return in TurboTax so that the information that transfers to 2019 will be correct. If you do that, just make the correction in TurboTax. Do not actually file a corrected or amended return.