Report of state income tax refund from California Franchise Tax Board

[geerandi01]

Hello, I received a Report of State Income Tax Refund (2016 FORM 1099-G)  from California Franchise Tax Board for tax year 2015. Am I supposed to enter this information in my 2016 tax return?

[TeresaM · Accepted solution]

You should enter last year's state or local tax refund and TurboTax will ask questions to determine if it is taxable or not.

If you took the state and local tax deduction last year and itemized, the refund will be taxable this year if the deduction benefitted (reduced) last year's tax bill. This is true even if you opted to apply the refund to this year's state or local return.

But if you took the sales tax deduction or the standard deduction last year, it won't be taxable on this year's return. It also won't be taxable if last year's return was subject to the AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) and the refund amount was less than the amount disallowed under AMT.

To enter a 1099-G for a state or local refund

• Please click on the Federal Taxes tab, at the top.
• Then select, Wages and Income
• You may see a prompt for your 1099 but if not, click on 
• Check for More Income and See All Income
• Click on Show More beside Other Common Income by the green $ money bag
• Click on Start by Refunds Received for State/Local Tax Returns
• Yes to continue and add the 1099-G for a state or local refund

[janabaran]

I have a similar problem.

I feel it is pretty confusing when you receive 1099-G from the state. I received the form and the number in Box 2 is different from my 2018 Tax Return. I have also received a check from State of Cali earlier this year about some overpaid taxes. So I thought the sum of the check and the refund from 2018 tax return would make up the number in box 2 on my 1099-G "report of State Income Tax Refund". However, it is off by about $3. So I am pretty confused.

The Turbotax section "Tell us about your refund" does not mention any form or box numbers. It merely refers to the last year tax return and the numbers are already prefilled. I replaced the value for " Total Refund Received in 2019" by the value in the Box 2 of the 1099-G I received. I hope that is correct.