View Tax Summary doesn't help for this. The credit for tax paid to other jurisdictions is already subtracted from the tax amount in the "Total Tax" field so you don't actually see anything about it.
Short answer is that the correct value is likely the one on the tax paid to other jurisdictions summary and correctly entered on the actual tax forms. So, end result is correct. And I think turbo tax needs to be updated to show the correct value at the end of the tax paid to other jurisdictions calculation questions.
Details
I was able to see the populated values to the actual tax forms by going to the "Print Center" after expanding the "Tax Tools" menu on the left side and generating a pdf file of the tax forms for NJ. (There is an option to view federal tax forms after viewing the federal tax summary from the tools menu without going to the print center, but not an option for states. Seems like that could be better designed.)
It looks like the value at the end of the questions for calculating credit paid to other jurisdictions is the value from column B of the NJ-COJ form. The value on the "Summary of Taxes Paid to Other States" is the value from column A of the same form. Column A is if you are eligible for a property tax benefit. Property tax benefit reduces your total tax which in turn reduces your tax credit from the other state. Column B is if you don't take a property tax deduction. Although column B gives more credit for taxes paid to the other jurisdiction, the total net benefit of the Column A tax credit and the property tax credit is greater than the credit from column B alone.
Worksheet I determines if it is better to take the property tax deduction or tax credit. if property tax deduction is better values from column A of NJ-COJ are used. If property tax credit is better column B of NJ-COJ are used. If not eligible for either, column B is used.
In my opinion, Turbo Tax should display the best value at the end of the questionnaire for the credit for taxes paid to other jurisdictions. If the value is available when you click done, for the summary, then it should be available at the end of the questions. And shouldn't just default to column B. The result is displaying conflicting values for the user which even tax experts responding to the question and Turbo Tax phone support were not able to explain. Phone support assumed I had an incorrectly entered value somewhere and that Turbo Tax had no known issues. And even going through my entire NJ return with me, their recommendation is that I should pay for an upgrade so a tax expert could find my mistake. Glad I turned that down but upset about wasting a few hours researching and everything else involved. Please fix the discrepancy TurboTax.
