Where do you see that?  Which state do you live in?

The State and local tax refund worksheet determines how much of your state refund, from last year (received in the current tax year) is taxable on your federal return.  For most people, it's all taxable (or none) and the worksheet is seldom needed.  But there are certain circumstances when only a portion of the refund is taxable.  The worksheet will show the calculation of the taxable amount. 

A common circumstance is when your itemized deductions are only slightly more than your standard deduction. 

The new tax law (starting in tax year 2018) limited the amount of State and Local i Tax (SALT) that can be deducted to $10,000. If a tax payer coulda deducted more, that is taken into account when calculating how much of the refund is taxable.

@Vanessa A I am also dealing with the same concern. My husband and I are filing jointly. After entering our W2s it takes me to a screen to review Wages and Income. 

It says I need to review “Refunds Received for State/Local Tax Returns”. 

I click review and it automatically filled in an amount for my 2018 Michigan Refund amount. It doesn’t match the refund I got last year.

When I click EDIT, it has boxes that once again are automatically filled for my Michigan info: “Total refund received in 2019” & “Total of all your payments and withholding”. Then a drop down box saying 2018. 

Am I supposed to calculate something from our last year’s taxes? I did them in turbo tax last year too so I’m not sure why the auto calculated number is wrong? Not sure what I’m missing here. 

I also as well have this same issue.  Did you ever get an answer to this.  

I'm having same issue

It is in the Wages and Income section.

The State and Local Tax Refund Summary is a summary of the State Refunds you received during 2019 for prior years.

If you didn't itemize deductions on the prior year return and deduct these taxes paid, then they likely won't be taxable on your current return.

Here is a help article that provides more details on reporting these refunds received:  Do I need to report my State or Local Refund?

I'm having the same issue in Oklahoma.  Did you get an answer of why the automatically filled in amount doesn't match the actual refund from last year?  Thanks!

You must figure out the taxable portion of your state refund so you can report it. You can do this using the State and Local Tax Refund Worksheet included in the TurboTax. You must file this worksheet along with your tax return.

After you calculate the taxable amount (which can be less than the actual refund), state refunds are reported on line 10 of Schedule 1 of the new 2019 Form 1040.

You'll need some information to accurately complete the state refund worksheet if you must report and pay taxes on your refund. This information can be located in a few documents: 

• Form 1099-G from the state or states that sent you refunds
• Your previous year’s state tax return, which shows the amount of the refund you received if you didn't receive a Form 1099-G
• Your previous year's federal Form 1040 and Schedule A, which lists your itemized deductions 

The new tax law (starting in tax year 2018) limited the amount of State and Local  Tax (SALT) that can be deducted to $10,000. If a tax payer coulda deducted more, that is taken into account when calculating how much of the refund is taxable.  The worksheet shows this.

Saw the same thing just now doing my own taxes. TurboTax's amount was different than what was on my state tax return. But I took a closer look, and the difference between the amounts was the Earned Income Credit. So subtracting that from the total refund amount on my state tax return gave me the amount that TurboTax had filled in. I'm not sure why they don't give any clarification on this, since it seems pretty confusing.

I have this same issue.  And the article provided above does not address the issue at all.  I used TurboTax last year....so it has the correct refund amount (which you can see on the "Two Year Comp" state screen.  And this matches what was in fact deposited into my account.  However, in the "State and Local Tax Refund Summary" page, there is a number in there under "Refund Amount" (by default) which is not the Refund Amount.  Instead it is showing a value that looks to be last year's refund amount less the "Refundable Credits" from last year.  (You can tell this by looking at the "Two-Year Comp" form (under the state section).  So even though TurboTax knows the Refund Amount from the prior year, it is defaulting in to this field a different number (Refund Amount less last year's refundable credits as listed on the Two-Year Comp page.  

Why?  Should I delete this and put in the Refund Amount?  

Based on the other comments above....other people seem to have the same issue.  I can't find a helpful answer anywhere...

I am grappling with the exact same issue. Very confusing that TurboTax does not provide additional explanation for how exactly the correct amount to go into that box should be calculated, especially given that it has the history of all my prior filings.

Hi - Yes, it's frustrating.  Given this post was from a long time ago and did not include an answer....I created a new post.  Someone responded there in case you are interested.  The new post is titled:

"State/Local "Refund Amount" defaults to another number - why? Should I overwrite this?"