Do I need to amend tax return if the income change does not affect the amount I owe?

[zeebers13]

I forgot to include personal interest income from my savings account on my tax return, but the change in income does not affect the amount I owe or am owed. Should I still send an amended tax return?

[ErnieS0]

No. Don’t amend your tax return if there is no change in tax. Amend if you owe more tax or are getting an additional refund.

If you live in a state with an income tax, be sure to check if your interest affects state taxes. It’s possible you have to have amend state but not federal.

[zeebers13]

Ok, thanks! The change in income doesn’t affect my NJ state taxes either, so I’m guessing I won’t have to amend my state tax return either. 

[mrohling]

I read the other posts, but just want to make sure on whether I need to amend my 2021 federal and state return.  I used the wrong 1098 mortgage interest statement on my original filing and I qualified for the standard deduction.  When I entered the correct 1098 on my amended return, I still qualified for the standard deduction, so my federal refund and what I owe my state did not change.  Since my refund and what I owe my state did not change, this tells me I do not need to send in an amended return for either one.  Correct?

Assuming, no amendment to file, but I want my return to reflect the correct 1098 amounts.  Should I just leave my amended return in place, so the correct numbers transfer to my 2022 return next year and just not file the 2021 amended return? 

thanks

[ErnieS0]

It does not matter that you entered the wrong Form 1098 @mrohling. TurboTax will not send your 1098 info to the IRS if you claimed the standard deduction (and your mortgage company sends a copy of the right 1098 to the IRS anyway).

The only thing that happens when entering the wrong 1098 is that your historic info in TurboTax will be wrong. 

If the name of the mortgage company is different, TurboTax will transfer the wrong name to 2022 but no numbers. You can retype the name when you prepare next year's return.

[mrohling]

Thanks ErnieSO.

Since I amended my return in turbotax to verify nothing changed (federal or state), can I just leave the amended return as is and just transfer it to my 2022 return next year or does that cause a problem with turbotax?  or should I just delete my amended return and not worry about the historic 1098 numbers.  

appreciate your help. 

[ErnieS0]

Yes. You can just leave things as is in TurboTax. If you updated your info, your historic info will be correct going into 2022 @mrohling.

The only issue that may come up is that the amended form (Form 1040X) will print with your 2021 return if you ever need to submit a copy for a bank loan, etc. If it's paper, you can remove those pages. It's not as easy with a pdf.

You can go back into TurboTax and just cancel the amendments. This will not undo the corrected 1098 info you put in. It will just remove the amended forms.

[mrohling]

thanks for your help.  Really appreciate you.

Mike