New Jersey, turbotax self employed, credit for tax paid to other state not consistent.

[stymie11]

New Jersey, turbotax self employed, credit for tax paid to other state not consistent.
Summary of Taxes Paid to Other States - For NY it has one number. When I click edit and go through the questions at the end the credit is $75 more. I click continue which goes back to the summary and it is back to the lower number.

[JosephF8]

Are you changing anything when you go through the NJ return?

The amount of Credit will vary based on income taxable to both states

Lower NJ taxable income will make less of the tax paid available for credit

[stymie11]

No, I am not changing anything while going back through that section. I am familiar with how the taxes work between NY and NJ income. Just that I am getting 2 different values. The one calculated at the end of the section is not the same as the one on the summary after I finish it.

[AmyC]

Please fill this form out for someone to call you. Then you can explain your NJ is not showing the same value. There are no known issues so we appreciate your calling in.

[seamuseleven]

I have this exact same problem. When I enter the information it gives me what the credit is, but when I'm back on the main page the number is different. Same form? Or is there a way to resolve this?

[ThomasM125]

It might be that the summary page is not populated correctly, but the correct credit is probably listed on the tax return. You can see a summary of the tax return which should show you the credits as follows:

1. Find the "Tax Tools" option on your left menu bar and click on it

2. Click on "Tools"

3. Click on "View Tax Summary"

Make sure you are in the state section or you will just see the federal return summary.

[stymie11]

View Tax Summary doesn't help for this. The credit for tax paid to other jurisdictions is already subtracted from the tax amount in the "Total Tax" field so you don't actually see anything about it.

Short answer is that the correct value is likely the one on the tax paid to other jurisdictions summary and correctly entered on the actual tax forms. So, end result is correct. And I think turbo tax needs to be updated to show the correct value at the end of the tax paid to other jurisdictions calculation questions.

Details

I was able to see the populated values to the actual tax forms by going to the "Print Center" after expanding the "Tax Tools" menu on the left side and generating a pdf file of the tax forms for NJ. (There is an option to view federal tax forms after viewing the federal tax summary from the tools menu without going to the print center, but not an option for states. Seems like that could be better designed.)

It looks like the value at the end of the questions for calculating credit paid to other jurisdictions is the value from column B of the NJ-COJ form. The value on the "Summary of Taxes Paid to Other States" is the value from column A of the same form. Column A is if you are eligible for a property tax benefit. Property tax benefit reduces your total tax which in turn reduces your tax credit from the other state. Column B is if you don't take a property tax deduction. Although column B gives more credit for taxes paid to the other jurisdiction, the total net benefit of the Column A tax credit and the property tax credit is greater than the credit from column B alone.

Worksheet I determines if it is better to take the property tax deduction or tax credit. if property tax deduction is better values from column A of NJ-COJ are used. If property tax credit is better column B of NJ-COJ are used. If not eligible for either, column B is used.

In my opinion, Turbo Tax should display the best value at the end of the questionnaire for the credit for taxes paid to other jurisdictions. If the value is available when you click done, for the summary, then it should be available at the end of the questions. And shouldn't just default to column B. The result is displaying conflicting values for the user which even tax experts responding to the question and Turbo Tax phone support were not able to explain. Phone support assumed I had an incorrectly entered value somewhere and that Turbo Tax had no known issues. And even going through my entire NJ return with me, their recommendation is that I should pay for an upgrade so a tax expert could find my mistake. Glad I turned that down but upset about wasting a few hours researching and everything else involved. Please fix the discrepancy TurboTax.

[ny1301]

The title on the summary is wong as "Tax paid to other jurisdiction" because it's only the "Credit Allowed". If you go to for "Sch NJ-COJ", you would see the correct amount you paid to other states in the "worksheet", however, go down the form you will see NJ only allow a percentage of it on line 9. That's what you see in the summary. 

Overall, the summary should say "Credit Allowed for Tax paid to other jurisdiction"