topic Re: what-if worksheet & standard deduction in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Tax Year Prior to 2020: what-if worksheet & standard deduction

linsker — Mon, 22 May 2023 21:02:47 GMT

My wife and I are both over 65, filing a joint return. On the 2019 Turbotax Premier What-if Worksheet, the standard deduction of $27000 is correctly shown in column 1 (copied from our 1040). However, when I enter the identical information (ages = 70 and 73, "MFJ" filing status, all numerical values the same) manually into column 2, Turbotax computes the standard deduction as $24,400. That is, the calculation seems to ignore the fact that we are both over 65. Is this an error in the What-If calculator?

Re: what-if worksheet & standard deduction

VictorW9 — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 20:04:42 GMT

You may want to go back and make sure your personal information were entered correctly.

If you are using TurboTax online, click on My Info on the left and renter your information and make sure you indicate you are filing (MFJ) married filing joint.

Re: what-if worksheet & standard deduction

linsker — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 20:13:35 GMT

I believe Turbotax online doesn't have a "what-if" function to compare with. In any case, I'm using the Windows download version. And the personal info is correctly entered -- it's only a matter of the ages and MFJ status (and not being blind or deceased); nothing else should matter for computing the standard deduction.

Re: what-if worksheet & standard deduction

linsker — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 20:20:06 GMT

I've resolved my question: I hadn't seen that "what-if" line 39a requires that I manually enter the number of people over 65. I had assumed that entering the ages at the top of the column would suffice. Thanks.

Re: what-if worksheet & standard deduction

VictorW9 — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 20:25:02 GMT

So, is your itemized deduction higher than the standard even after taking into account the over 65 standard amount? If you are using itemized deduction instead of standard then it should't matter. But if you are forcing TurboTax to use standard instead of the higher itemized amount, then you may likely end up with some issues.