We are recently married and have two separate state income tax refunds to enter for 2016 ...yet it doesn't let me enter each 2015 tax info for each of us. what do we do??

[DoninGA]

Okay...Back again.  I created the test return and saw what you were describing.  

The situation would only occur if both of you used itemized deductions in the prior tax year on Form 1040 Schedule A and the itemized deductions were greater than the standard deduction for your filing status.  For tax year 2015 since you were filing as Single the total itemized deductions on Schedule A would have to be greater than $6,300.

You are correct, the program will only take the entries for one taxpayer to calculate the correct amount of state tax refund to enter on the 2016 tax return if the person used the itemized deduction on the prior year tax return instead of the standard deduction.

So my question is, did both of you use itemized deductions on your 2015 tax return?  The entry would be shown on the 2015 Form 1040 Line 40 and the amount shown would be greater than $6,300.

[rvierling09]

Yes we both used itemized deductions on our 2015 tax return.

[DoninGA]

I have posted this problem to the other SuperUsers and to the TurboTax Moderator of this forum to see if anyone recalls a discussion of this problem in the past.  There may have been a workaround or this may well be just a limitation in the software.  Hopefully I will get some feedback on my question this weekend or early next week.

[DoninGA]

@rvierling09 - I have received a response for your situation from SuperUser @rjs  which is along the line that confirmed what I thought needed to be done to properly report the taxable portion of both state tax refunds.  
Here is their response -

"TurboTax is not set up to handle your situation correctly. The right way to do it is to calculate the taxable portion of your own refund using information from your 2015 single return, and calculate the taxable portion of your husband's refund using information from his 2015 single return. But TurboTax is set up to only do one such calculation, using information from only one 2015 return. Here are two options for handling it.

1. Treat both of your refunds as fully taxable. That's the most common result anyway when you both itemized for 2015. If you choose to do this, you can enter the two refunds separately, or enter the total of both refunds as if it were one refund. Since you transferred information from your 2015 return, you will get a screen that says "Confirm Your 2015 Federal Return Info." It displays information that was transferred from your 2015 return and asks you if it's correct. Answer No, that it's not correct. Two screens later you will get the choice to either enter information from your 2015 return or make your full refund taxable. Choose the option to make the full amount taxable.

2. Do the calculations of the taxable amount yourself outside of TurboTax. You have to do the calculations separately for each of the two refunds. You can probably use the worksheet for Form 1040 line 10 that's on page 24 of the IRS instructions for Form 1040, but check the "exceptions" listed in the instructions on pages 23 and 24 to see if you have to use Worksheet 2 on page 25 of Publication 525 instead. Add together the taxable amounts from the two calculations, and enter that total as the refund amount in TurboTax. Then follow the instructions in option 1 above to treat the full amount as taxable."

The Form 1040 instructions from entering state/local tax refunds start on page 23 of the instructions with the worksheet on page 24 - <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf#page=23">https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf#pag...>