SALES TAX
You can enter the sales tax you paid in 2024 by going to
Federal>Deductions and Credits>Estimates and Other Taxes Paid> Sales Tax.
Sales tax is an itemized deduction. Unless you have enough other itemized deductions like mortgage interest, medical expenses, charity donations, etc. to exceed your standard deduction the sales tax will have no effect on your tax due or refund.
The standard deduction makes some of your income “tax free.” It is not a refund. You will see your standard or itemized deduction amount on line 12 of your 2024 Form 1040.
2024 STANDARD DEDUCTION AMOUNTS
SINGLE $14,600 (65 or older/legally blind + $1950)
MARRIED FILING SEPARATELY $14,600 (65 or older/legally blind + $1550)
MARRIED FILING JOINTLY $29,200 (65 or older/legally blind + $1550)
HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD $21,900 (65 or older/legally blind + $1950)
Sales tax is shown as "0". Does not allow an entry?????
You have the option of claiming either general state and local sales taxes or state and local income taxes as an itemized deduction to reduce your tax bill.
If you live in a state that doesn't tax income, you'll want to go through the Sales Tax Deduction section since chances are good that the sales tax deduction will be larger than any income taxes you may pay.
The bulk of your state and local income taxes are usually reported on your W-2. If you've filled out your W-2 in this return, TurboTax has already compared your state and local taxes to an IRS estimate of your sales tax (based on your income) to estimate which would be the higher deduction for you. You can go through the Sales Tax Deduction section and see which gives you the biggest deduction.
In the sales tax section of TurboTax, under Estimates and Other Taxes Paid in Desktop or Sales Tax in Online, you can either enter your actual expenses by selecting Enter All My Receipts and totaling all of your sales tax receipts for the year, or select EasyGuide to have TurboTax use sales tax tables from the IRS to estimate your sales tax deduction based upon your income.
Your sales taxes, or state and local income taxes, added together with your other itemized deductions would need to exceed your Standard Deduction in order to reduce your income subject to tax. In addition, under current law, the total deduction for state and local taxes on the Federal return is limited to $10,000 ($5,000 for Separate filers).