PA Unreimbursed Employee Business Expenses

[HopTime745]

I don't fully understand the purpose of the the PA Unreimbursed Employee Business Expenses form.

I did my federal return on TurboTax with my husband filing jointly. My husband is retired and works enough on the rental properties we own that TurboTax considers him an "active real estate professional." He deducted all the expenses for managing the rental properties in the rental section of the federal TurboTax section. Are these automatically imported by TurboTax into the PA state federal return or do I have to enter them again manually? Is this where PA Unreimbursed Employee Business Expenses comes in? I was confused because my husband is retired, not employed by someone else, and only works on the rental properties (so in some sense a self-employed real estate professional). Should we reclaim the rental expenses, including vehicle expenses, on PA state return under Employee Business Expenses, or does this not apply to us as he is not employed by someone else and these weren't expenses incurred for employment by someone else?

Secondly, I am an educator. I claimed educator expenses on the federal return. Is this carried over to the PA state tax return? Or do I have to manually enter my educator expenses in the reimbursed business expenses of the PA return again?

Thank you.

[RaifH · Accepted solution]

No, you do not need to enter your husband's expenses for maintaining your rental property. The PA unreimbursed business expenses is only for employees who receive a W-2. Since you already deducted your husband's expenses on your rental income, you do not also include it as unreimbursed business expenses. The rental income is entered in a different area on the Pennsylvania return and the total income does carry through from the federal return. 

Your teacher expenses ARE unreimbursed business expenses and is one of the few that you are also allowed a deduction on your federal return, up to $250. This information is in TurboTax already, but you will have to tell the system to include it for PA. It's also important that since the federal deduction is capped at $250, you can enter more than that for PA if you spent more on school supplies that you were not reimbursed for by your school. To do that: 

1. In your PA return, press Continue on Unreimbursed job expenses
2. Select Edit by your job duties and your employer on the next screen
3. Leave the box that says Check this box if you do not want to include employee job expenses on this return unchecked
4. Confirm your employer information
5. Under Federal employee business expenses, the educator expenses you took on your federal return should already be there. If you need to modify the amount, you can.
6. If you had other expenses, like union dues, you may enter those as well. Please note that work clothes are only considered deductible if it is something that you could not wear outside of work, like a uniform or special equipment. 

[HopTime745]

Thank you for your answer.

Another question: when filling out the employer name and address section of the PA unreimbursed business expenses, do I put in the employer's state ID (box 15 of W2) or the employer's federal ID number (box b of W2)? I assume it is the state ID number, but just want to verify.

[Vanessa A]

You will enter the employer's state ID for the PA unreimbursed business expenses.

It should be transferred from your W-2 entries in your federal return, but if it is not, you would enter the state ID.