I have a similar yet reversed issue? it is beneficial for me to itemize, even though the recommendation is to use standard deduction. Itemizing gives me a much higher state refund (Maryland). But everytime I review Federal, it populates $600 into line 12b. I remove it, on the error screen, and it is good to go. I even printed out the forms to check. And, it appears to then flow the correct itemization to the Maryland state forms. The issue really is that everytime I do a "recheck", TT repopulates with $600. This is his is clearly a bug. If the user states they want to ITEMIZE, regardless of the TT recommendation, they should blank out 12b. So frustrating.
