How to modify state form: WI Interest from State and Municipal Obligations?

[marks818]

I am in TurboTax and I am amending my state (WI) form.  On the top of the webpage, there is a section titled "Here's the income that Wisconsin handles differently".  The second line in that section reads "WI Interest from State and Municipal Obligations".  The second line's dollar amount is blank.  I click on Edit, and it shows the correct dollar amount in the edit screen.  When I click Continue and return back, the second line is still blank.  So it appears the software knows about the amount, but will not show that amount on this screen nor include this amount when calculating the new tax amount.  I have been unable to find a way to manually override this.  Is this a bug in the software?  Thanks.

[DawnC]

Check your WI state return, as the screen may be showing correctly.  If you are trying to exclude that amount from taxable income, the federal should show as the amount reported on the federal return, but the state amount should be zero, or blank.  If the amount is removed from your AGI on the state return, that would be correct, but if the amount is still included in the WI gross income, then there is a problem and you may need to contact support.  

[marks818]

Thanks for the reply.  I am not sure if I completely understand your answer, so I will give a little more background info.  I have one mutual fund which invests a portion of its assets into municipal bonds.  In this fund's 1099-DIV, it has a balance in column 11 (Exempt Interest Dividends).  This value was included in line 2a of the 1040 form and also as income in line 2 of the Wisconsin Form 1.  The problem is I forgot to specify that a portion of this value was Wisconsin munis.  So I attempted to amend my state tax return to reduce the income specified.  I added the necessary info on the portion of the Wisconsin munis in TurboTax for that fund.  But the change I made was not reflected in the state form.  Which lead me to my original posted question.  So to understand what you are saying, I should contact support with the link you provided to tell them something is wrong?  Thanks.

[AmyC]

Follow these steps:

1. go back into the federal section,
2. into the dividends and mark that you have more information on your 1099DIV.
3. Once you mark that box, the screen drops down and you will see where you an enter the exempt amount. 

1. Click continue.
2. Tell us if any of these uncommon situations apply:
3. select the top box, A portion of these dividends is a US Government interest.

1. Click continue, then you will see Enter US Government Interest,
2. enter the amount.
3. Click Continue.
4. Which state, click the drop down and select WI.
5. Select Done

[marks818]

Thank you for the reply.  If I follow the instructions provided, the income from my state form will be reduced and I get the correct refund amount to show up.  Unfortunately, this approach would not be correct.  The approach suggested increases the amount of Federal interest that is deducted.  What is needed in my case is to reduce the amount of WI interest from state and municipal obligations (not increase the Federal interest).  So I am still looking for a way to convince TurboTax to lower the WI interest in the state form.  Thanks.

[SteamTrain]

Yeah...that second picture is the wrong one  (that picture refers to box 1a $$ on a 1099-DIV, not box 11) ....you'll want the page after that.

But...are you sure you started a state amended tax return first, before making the changes?  IF so, doing the WI breakout should work, as long as the WI state amount you are breaking out from the other states is appreciable. (I wouldn't bother amending WI for less than ~$50-to-$100 of WI bond interest....the payback is minimal).

Make sure you break the WI $$ out similar to the picture example below (for an NC person..This is a followup page for box 11 on a 1099-DIV form, a similar page is presented for box 8 on a 1099-INT)

(you might have to actually print out your amended WI Form 1, and see if line 2 of that form has been reduced by the proper $$ amount from what was shown on your original Form 1....maybe it's showing properly there)

IF it still isn't showing on the WI form, time for Customer Support.

_____________________

[marks818]

After contacting support, we came to the conclusion that there seems to be an issue in the online TurboTax software that needs to be fixed.  I was able to get this working after using the downloaded version of TurboTax to amend my return.