I wrote because Turbo Tax seems to have a bug that does not allow it sort out who is eligible for the Circuit Breaker Credit.
Although I was not eligible, I was given the CB Credit (a dollar for dollar reduction in my tax liability), which wiped out my tax due and would have entitled me to a payment from the state that I did not qualify for. I tried using the Step by Step questions and the forms to get to back out the credit but the only thing that worked was deleting the rent payments. Because zeroing out rent did not impact my tax due, I went with it, but it would have been a real problem if I needed the deduction to reduce my taxable income and could not get Turbo Tax to do it without also giving me the Circuit Breaker credit.
As I said above, anyone should be able to report their rent payments because they get a deduction that reduces their taxable income, but when rent is entered Turbo Tax looks to see if they meet the age and income criteria for the CB Credit and recalculates the tax due. Then, eligibility is verified in the Step by Step questions and that's when things go haywire. I think the eligibility questions were changed for 2024 and are less clear and on top of that, Turbo Tax does not produce the right result.
