I'm retired but continued on my company's group health insurance, paying 100% of the premiums using after tax dollars. I'm planning on taking the standard deduction rather than itemizing because that will provide the best tax refund. I live in Idaho and am wondering if I can use the total amount of premiums as a subtraction on my state form 39R, line 18, Subtractions - Health Insurance Premiums. The TurboTax help and Form Instruction both include references to Schedule A. So I'm just not sure if there is a requirement (implied?) to have itemized on the Federal Tax Form.
The Turbo Tax Help dialog box states: "Eligible premiums are those paid during 2019 that have not been deducted or excluded elsewhere.
For example: you paid $2,400 in health insurance premiums in 2019. You added these to your other medical expenses and reported them on line 1 of your federal Schedule A, Itemized Deductions. The federal limitation you calculated for line 3 Schedule A was more than your total medical expenses for the year. The result on line 4 of your federal Schedule A was zero. You can deduct the full $2,400 on your Idaho return because you were not able to take a deduction on your federal return."
The Form 39R instructions for that line read as follows: "Deduct premiums you paid for health insurance for yourself, your spouse and your dependents if those premiums haven’t already been deducted or excluded from your income.
If you claimed a deduction for health insurance premiums on your federal Form 1040 or 1040-SR, Schedule A, use the worksheet on page 34 to calculate the deduction allowed for health insurance premiums. The worksheet follows the priority that itemized deductions first apply to health insurance premiums then to long-term care insurance."
Technically speaking, the first statement is true. I have not deducted or excluded the premiums from my income and since I did not itemize, it does not appear that I need to use the worksheet to calculate the deduction allowed.
Note: If I complete the worksheet as if I had itemized on the Federal Schedule A, it shows that I can include the full amount.
