Either I am a blind or I am one of the dumbest retired USAF Chiefs ever using TurboTax (for over a decade).. TurboTax missed nagging me (or even hinting) at the $10K (in tax year 2022), $20K (tax year 2023), $30K (tax year 2024), $40K (tax year 2025) Virginia military tax benefit deduction. In tax year 2025 the difference between selecting it vs not was about $2400 in my case. Going back to tax year 2024, it was $2000. Luckily can go back to 2022 (just met the age eligibility)and have until 1 May 2026 to amend the 2022 VA tax return.
Apparently, I am the only one amongst the hundreds of thousands of retired military living in VA who is eligible and was dumb not to know about this new VA law enacted in 2022, nor was able to stumble on it in TurboTax for the last 4 years in a row. Because "stumbling on it" is exactly how you can find it.
And I am the type who goes through every question regardless if it ever remotely may apply.
In the TurboTax Federal return the military pension is not identified as such, it's lumped in under "Financial Institution IRAs, etc" so its never flagged as "military pension" anywhere except under the name of the "Financial Institution" ...which is entered under the name "Defense Finance and Accounting Service, US Military Retired Pay" . One would think that would be enough for the TurboTax program to flag it as such for the state taxes and give it about as much priority as claiming "VA bond" exemption or "farm vehicle" or other trivial deductions used by a total of 5 people in the state of Virginia.
Gemini AI:
Steps to Amend Virginia Only
- Open the Software: Launch TurboTax Basic 2022 and open your .tax2022 file.
- Start the Amendment: Under the Need to File an Amended Return? section on the main screen, select Amend a Filed Return.
- Bypass Federal Changes: When the software asks what you need to change, select State Return (or "Update" next to State Return) to skip directly to the Virginia interview.
- Complete the Virginia Interview:
- Go to the State Taxes tab and select Virginia.
- Look for Other Situations or Other Tax Forms at the end of the interview.
- Select Amend a Tax Return and follow the prompts to enter your corrections.
- Print and Mail: While the IRS and Virginia allow e-filing for amended returns, TurboTax often requires 2022 state amendments in the desktop version to be printed and mailed.
