Dear BillM223, thank you for your reply. I think I am overthinking this. line 1 is my AGI for each period. Line 1(a) is multiplied by four to estimate what the AGI would be for the year (annualized) if the first quarter were representative of the rest of the year (line 3(a)). Similarly, line 4(a) is my itemized deduction for the first quarter and when multiplied by four estimates what my itemized deductions would be for the year (line 6(a)) if the first quarter were representative of the rest of the year. Each column in line 7 is what my standard deduction is for the year. Line 10 appears to be either the annualized itemized (line 6) or standard (line 7) deduction, plus the non-annualized deduction for qualified business income for the quarter (line 9). Why would the standard and itemized deductions be treated one way and the deduction for QBI be treated another?
It turns out that having put this roadblock on the back burner, it made no difference in my case whether I put in the values for the quarter or the annualized values since my deduction for QBI was trivial (snuck in through some mutual funds or something). It was just my obsessive-compulsive nature driving me to pick up the last pennies. I don't "need" an answer, but I would like to know the correct way to do it since adding a value for the quarter to a value for the year is not intuitive for me. The fact that it doesn't specifically multiply line 9(a) by four makes me think that it was on purpose. Thank you.
