Level 2

Question

Choose itemized button not working, keeps saying I'm selecting the standard deduction, frustrating!

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
February 8, 2020
11 replies
244 views

Finally at the end of taxes but turbo tax won't let me choose my itemized deductions which are far greater, over $24,000, than the standard $13,850 . The system keeps reverting to standard deductions, not what I select or want. I've been working at this for hours and I definitely want my taxes itemized. Why isn't the change selection button working and allowing me to choose?

TurboTax Free Edition Online

tygrtchr

Level 7

The Turbo Tax Free Edition is not for taxpayers who are itemizing their deductions. You will need the Deluxe Edition.

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xmasbaby0

Level 15

Are you making the common mistake of just adding up all the amounts for your itemized deductions without considering the caps and thresholds that must be met?

STANDARD DEDUCTION

Many taxpayers are surprised because their itemized deductions are not having the same effect as they did on past tax returns. The new higher standard deduction and the elimination of certain deductions, as well as the cap on state and local taxes have had a major impact since the new tax laws went into effect beginning with 2018 returns.

Your itemized deductions have to be more than your standard deduction before you will see a change in your tax owed or tax refund. The deductions you enter do not necessarily count “dollar for dollar;” many of them are subject to meeting tough thresholds—medical expenses, for example, must meet a threshold that is pretty hard to reach. The software program uses all the IRS rules that apply to the expenses you enter, and it tells you if you have enough to use your itemized deductions or if using the standard deduction is more advantageous for you. Under the new tax laws, some deductions have been capped—there is a $10,000 limit to the itemized deductions for state, local, property and sales taxes.

Your standard deduction lowers your taxable income. It is not a refund.

2019 Standard Deduction Amounts

Single $12,200 (+ $1650 65 or older)

Married Filing Separate $12,200 (+ $1300 if 65 or older)

Married Filing Jointly $24,400 (+ $1300 for each spouse 65 or older)

Head of Household $18,350 (+ $1650 for 65 or older)

Look on line 9 of your 2019 Form 1040 to see your itemized/standard deduction amount

**Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to offer the most correct information possible. The poster disclaims any legal responsibility for the accuracy of the information that is contained in this post.**

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loispolAuthor

Level 2

It's well over the standard. I just sent a long detailed rely but it disappeared! I know what I am doing, the system is stuck/flawed. Please help me with this

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Docmomof2

Level 2

Having the same problem with Turbo Tax Deluxe. Waiting for expert to call...

VictoriaD75

Level 12

Try viewing your Tax Summary to determine if you are taking the standard deduction or itemizing on your return.

From the menu on the left, choose Tax Tools. Click on Tools. Click on View Tax Summary. From the left, choose Preview my 1040. Scroll to line 9. From there, you will be able to see if you are taking the standard deduction or itemizing.

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Itemized deductions issue

Level 2

I’m using Premier and just checked the figure in the Tax Summary. It’s the Standard Deduction, not the Itemized Deductions.

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TiffanyRose

Level 2

Having the same issue. TurboTax says “Based on what you just told us, itemizing your deductions is best for you,” then defaults to Standard Deductions when I try to file.
I called the customer service line and shared screens while I showed them the issue. Clearing my cache and cookies didn’t help, nor did deleting everything and starting fresh. Despite what people are saying about the free version, upgrading to Deluxe or Premier didn’t fix the problem. The program has a glitch, and I’m sure more people will be complaining as we get closer to April.

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hazelwoods

Level 3

Me too! I'm giving up since my itemized is not that much more than standard (<$200). It is so weird how the program tells me it is giving me itemized and that I should keep it that way because it is better, but the forms prefill and lock in to the standard deduction. Definitely a bug of some sort. Not worth my time sorting it out though. Fingers crossed they fix it by next year.

VolvoGirl

Level 15

If you have Charity Deductions you can take $300 in addition to the Standard Deduction. So the SD+300 would be more than your itemized deductions if they are less than 200 more than the SD.

Check 1040 line 10b for the extra $300 deduction.

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JJS3

Level 2

Long post but it's a complicated problem. Bear with me. I"m a smartass and annoyed by this, and I hate posts that are short on detail and impossible to use. This is for a situation where you want to use itemized deductions but TurboTax uses standard deduction even though it says it's using itemized, and you can't force it to change.

I had this problem also, and my total itemized deductions are just over the standard deduction like others have suggested. No matter how many times I tried to go through the step-by-step process it kept saying it's using Itemized but it keeps delivering Standard. I tried a test where my itemized deductions were a little more than $300 over the standard deduction and it worked properly (and my state tax plummeted). So this is clearly a software failure where it just doesn't work right when your itemized decuctions are within $300 of (over) the standard deduction. This is a ridiculous failure that should have been caught very early (or at least caught at some point ffs). The easiest fix is to add some "forgotten" cash charitable contributions, but if you don't want to cheat here is how I found to force a workaround.

Background: I'm using the downloaded exe-on-my-PC version of TurboTax Deluxe 2020. Tried repeatedly to use itemized deductions so my state (VA) taxes will use itemized deductions. This is a huge difference and a huge failure for TT. Every time I go through the step by step it says it's using itemized deductions, but it doesn't. Half baked software. I tried editing the Schedule A form - there's a box to force it to use itemized but the checkbox is disabled. Ready to just do this the old way with forms and a pen...but...

I googled a bit and found (a) it's not really a new problem and (b) a solution from 2018. Let me just take a moment to say how disgusted I am with TT for this failure - this is basic software troubleshooting and it should have been fixed long ago.

I have a solution but it's a solution that requires some careful steps. And disclaimer...I have not actually finished everything yet so this may be terrible, terrible advice. But try it.

The basic solution itself is very easy, but the step-by-step process in the 2020 software will undo it if you allow it to.

So here is the secret trick #1.

From wherever you are in the step-by-step process, click on Forms and open the Federal Information Worksheet that appears in the list of Forms on the left. It's named "Info Wks" or something un-findable like that. They couldn't just write it out...

In Part VI of Federal Information Worksheet, the first subsection is called Standard Deduction/Itemized Deductions. Under that there are three checkboxes. Check the first one (look at the others - you might need them but that's not what this post is about). It says something like "Check this box if you are itemizing for state tax or other purposes even though deductions are lower than your standard deduction." Sounds good, huh?

For me, checking that box immediately made everything right - the summary of my deductions now looks correct, and if I look at the forms they are correct. Great, right? Awesome...now jump back to step-by-step and wait for TT to fail again...

You probably wanted to set this checkbox early, and that makes sense. But when you are in step-by-step and you get to the page that tells you which deduction you should use - it breaks your fix. It doesn't matter if you accept what it says or try to change it. For me, it goes back to saying you're using Itemized but it uses Standard. I think this page is the problem (TT are you reading this?).

A little background - the problem page I'm talking about is after you finish entering Deductions and Credits, and you click Done with Deductions, then it does "Let's Check Your Deductions and Credits" and might give you a few comments/warnings. Then is shows "Your 2019 and 2020 Deductions & Credits" - for me this was all zeroes for Itemized (nice comparison tool!). Then click Continue and it reports what it chose for you - in my case it's "We've Chosen Itemized Deductions for you." But it didn't actually do that. It also says "What You're Getting: Federal Itemized Deductions." But it's lying. They spent all their time making this page very clear about what you're getting, but it's not what you're getting. So anyway, now you know where the problem is.

When you click Continue, it all breaks again. Important detail (seriously, TT are you reading this?)...this is the problem...when you click Continue, not only does it change your deduction option, but it also unchecks the box on the Federal Information Worksheet that made everything work correctly. This page telling you how smart TT is and how it figured out what is best...it fails and actually breaks the one thing that you needed it to do, so it's all wrong again.

So here is trick #2.

Now that I'm writing it, this doesn't seem like much of a trick and is kind of obvious in hindsight, but here it is. I recommend you first do the things I said above with the checkbox in the Info Wks, so you see the difference that the checkbox makes and you can do all your work properly. Then you will also see where the problem pops up. Then...

After you pass the problem page and you get to (in my case) the page that says "Other Tax Situation", you can just fix the checkbox again and it seems OK. Go to Forms and go to the Federal Information Worksheet again, and check that box again. It should switch back to Itemized and everything is OK again. I have not done extensive testing but apparently I've done more than TT has. And if that works and you didn't already, make sure to send TT a message that they need to test and fix stuff before they sell it to you. I've played around with this a little and I think the problem is simply that the one page in step-by-step is wiping that checkbox every time you pass through it.

After fixing the checkbox, I finished a few checks and started my state return and it didn't flip back yet, and my overall bill is nearly $1000 less (Federal is $100 more and State is nearly $1000 less). Thanks for the help TurboTax, for the last time ever.

That's as far as I got. I spent all day fighting this mess and ran out of time. And of course writing this was time consuming, with all the anger and drinking that had to be done with it. If this turns out to be bad, I'll post about it. I wanted to get this posted soon and not wait because there were a few people having this problem.

A super thanks to @Stinkerbellkity who found the magic checkbox back in 2018 (https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/taxes/discussion/re-how-to-force-turbotax-2018-to-itemize-on-federal-return-to-optimize-my-combined-state-and-federal/01/8384#M11566).

Good luck. I hope I didn't break anything.

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rseago0806

Level 4

THIS IS THE FIX - THANK YOU! I'm going to create a new topic to put this more in the forefront.

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bobh6

Level 2

I have exactly the same problem and I am using Turbo Tax Deluxe not the free version. Yesterday I waited an hour for someone to call me back and then they were of no help. Recommended I call again but today I can't find the number to call. Had the same problem last year and eventually did them by hand. Turbo Tax is a bad software!!

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JoannaB2

Level 9

Yes, you have to select itemized deduction. To select itemized deduction:

Click the Federal Taxes tab. ...
Then, Deductions & Credits. ...
Scroll all the way to the bottom, and click Wrap up tax breaks.
Continue through the interview screens.
Under "Let's make sure you're taking the deduction to keep your taxes accurate", select "we're itemizing our deductions", click continue.

Eligible taxpayers use Schedule A to figure itemized deductions. In most cases, federal income tax will be less if you take the larger of your itemized deduction

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jvpetito

Level 2

How was this problem resolved?

KathrynG3

Level 14

There are a few ways to trigger itemizing deductions. The main way would be to have more itemized deductions than your standard deduction. For more information, see: How do I change from the standard deduction to itemized (or vice-versa)?

TurboTax must be allowed to calculate it. At the end of the Deductions and Credits section, select Done with Tax Breaks.

Be sure that there is no value entered in the Cares Act section except for what TurboTax is calculating. Highlight the box and delete any contents.

@jvpetito

MtnTABS

Level 5

TurboTax Deluxe CD/Download Windows 2020

Married Filing Jointly husband deceased 2/24/20. Thank you for your attention. My problem is not in Federal (completed and approved by TurboTax but not yet eFiled). I went through all the Steps in Federal including itemizing deductions and there is a Schedule A in FORMS to prove it. TurboTax then told me two Standard deductions were better which I expected and I approved. I finished my Fed and my Montana return immediately began.

There it said Married Filing Separate was best so I went ahead and spent the whole weekend allocating figures from our 2019 return. Finally I reached a screen that says: MONTANA ITEMIZED DEDUCTIONS MFSC - “To itemize deductions on your Montana return, you must go back to your federal return and enter your federal itemized deductions there. Then return here and allocate your deductions between you and your spouse.”

I already did this in my Federal return. Even though I chose standard deductions for Fed, the Schedule A is still sitting in FORMS and under FORMS below Montana there is Form 2-Page 7-2020 Itemized Deductions Schedule showing the allocation amounts between me and my dec’d. husband. I desperately want to find a fix for this problem but none of my requests have been answered. I’ve checked for updates. Nada. Why haven’t itemized deductions flowed to State or why doesn’t this software recognize it is already sitting there? I surely hope that you can help me. Thank you.

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rmchamb

Level 2

My itemized deductions, accounting for limits of 10,000 for state and local, and medical 7.5% of AGI, is still over 50,000, but TT is telling me standard 27,400 (married filing jointly) is best... I am very upset!

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rmchamb

Level 2

I am using the PREMIER edition... what is going on!

SteamTrain

Level 15

@rmchamb SO ...enumerate the various amount you put in already, and maybe we can figure it out;....just round to the nearest $10

1) AGI (line 11 of your form 1040)

2) value of all charitable contributions (Divide into: 2a) Cash+Check+CCd, and 2b)"items" separately)

3) State and local income taxes paid during 2021 (include state/local withholding on W-2, 1099-R etc, plus any state/local quarterly estimates actually paid during 2021 (....or...sales taxes paid in 2021 if your state does no have an income tax)

4) Property/Real Estate taxes paid during 2021

5) Total "unreimbursed" medical/dental/optical expenses (including medical Ins premiums paid) for 2021

Think that's all......maybe someone will pipe in with something else that I may have forgotten for the moment

____________*Answers are correct to the best of my knowledge when posted, but should not be considered to be legal or official tax advice.*

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SHAMUS2K

Level 2

I am experiencing same problem. My itemized deductions do not pist in the 2025 deduction summary so program reverts to standard deduction when my itemized is much more

MarilynG

Level 15

If you're using TurboTax Online, try closing the program, clear your Cache and Cookies and return to the Deductions section.

In TurboTax Desktop, after indicating 'done with deductions' you normally get some additional questions, then a page summarizing Standard vs. Itemized. If you choose 'change my deduction' and choose 'itemized' on the next page you won't necessarily get a confirmation (except viewing the refund meter change), but you should see this on your Form 1040 and on Schedule A in FORMS mode.

@SHAMUS2K

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SHAMUS2K

Level 2

Thanks

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mannoanth

Level 2

The same thing is happening in TurboTax Deluxe. Although the line 17 on Schedule A is more than the standard deduction, Form 10 for forces the standard deduction, and the checkbox to itemize anyway doesn't work. There is a message at the bottom of Schedule A stating that the mortgage insurance deduction has expired and the data on the form wont be used. I'm not trying to deduct mortgage insurance. Seems TurboTax misapplied the new rules.

MarilynG

Level 15

What amount is showing on your Form 1040, Line 12e? I'm using TurboTax Deluxe also, and at the screen shown above, when I click on 'Change my deduction' it does put the Itemized Deduction amount on Line 12e of my 1040, even though my Standard Deduction is larger. Not sure what you mean by 'Form 10' or 'checkbox to itemize anyway?'

The next screen after choosing 'change my deduction' shows both, and when I select one or the other, it carries my choice to Form 1040 either way.

If you can give more details, we'll try to help. Be sure you've updated your program from the ONLINE link at the top.

@mannoanth

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fcjo

Level 2

I have the Deluxe edition and it still uses the Standard Deduction and not the Itemized Deduction amount.

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Monikak11

Level 2

If you are using TurboTax Deluxe Desktop, and your return shows the Standard Deduction even though Itemized Deductions are larger, you can follow these steps to resolve the issue:

Go to Forms view by choosing Forms at the top of the screen.
Click Open Form above the list of forms on the left.
Enter Federal Information Worksheet.
Find Part VI-Additional Information for Your Federal Return.
If you find that the box is checked to select to take the Standard Deduction even if it is less than Itemized Deductions, uncheck the box and you should now have Itemized Deductions if they are greater.

@fcjo

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Ken14

Level 2

I am using TurboTax Premier, and I also have this problem. After I tried choosing Itemized Deductions using the "Change my deduction" button, the page that shows which deduction type still says "You've chosen Standard Deduction, so let's keep going and lock that in for you."

I checked the Federal Information Wks in Forms, but that checkbox is NOT checked. What else can I do to use my Itemized Deductions?