Can I take the standard deduction for federal and itemize Oregon state for the upcoming tax year -- 2019?

[macuser_22 · Accepted solution]

The upcoming tax year is 2018, not 2019, even though you file in 2019.

The answer is "probably".   For 2017 Oregon said: "You can claim itemized deductions on your Oregon return even if you don’t itemize on your federal return. If you itemize for Oregon only, fill out a federal Schedule A for Oregon purposes.".

The 2018 tax year Oregon rules have not been published yet, but assuming no change in Oregon tax law, it will probably be the same for 2018.

[rtrailer]

Any updates on this? TurboTax is not allowing me to go standard deduction on Fed return but itemize Oregon return.

[yukon84422]

I am having the opposite problem. Did standard deduction on Federal, but cannot see where you are able to itemize on Oregon return using 2018 Schedule OR-A, resulting in having to add my last 2017 Oregon refund to my income both federally and state. What am I missing here? Thanks

[thomaskimnguyen]

I got an email that my oregon tax return rejected due to “Your Oregon tax return wasn't e-filed because of an issue with Oregon Schedule OR-A, Oregon Itemized Deductions.” And I did use standard deduction for Federal.

[yukon84422]

Thanks, Thomas, sounds like a software error with Turbo Tax? But you were able to find Oregon Schedule OR-A on TT Deluxe? What happens now?

[yukon84422]

Turns out that Oregon Schedule OR-A is NOT available online with TT  Deluxe from your computer. You have to buy the Deluxe Desktop software to install to have this schedule available. Or, do Fed and Oregon by hand and snail mail them. I learned this from Customer Service at TT.

[wjrobins9]

My OR state was rejected as well and TT says it updated its systems 1/31/19 going thru the email link is supposed to incorporate new OR-A thing. Did that but my state refund is 700$ less now and only difference seems to be that it added 2017 state refund to my income. Anyone else see the considerable drop in refund or ideas on how to fix that?

[yukon84422]

did TT show the OR-A on your state return. It added my 2017 state return as well, that is the idea of the OR-A, so you can itemize for Oregon. Clearly you cant seem to do TT Deluxe online to fix this, and you have to buy the Deluxe Desktop software to install. Which is lame, I think.

[wjrobins9]

No it didn't show the OR-A or the option to do it. Very lame. I hear H&R block does free checks for accuracy so prolly gonna do that.

[yukon84422]

wj, I went back to TT and did my Fed and OR last night. I started off with itemized for Fed, took the standard deduction instead, and gritted my teeth and did Oregon. Lo and Behold, it took that info and loaded it on OR-A and there was my refund I had hoped for. I had gone on H and R block, but when I went all the way through Fed and State without filing, just to see, it took only 2100 standard deduction for Oregon or whatever it is. So perhaps how it works is you itemize for Federal, if you are below the 12K or 24 K, you take standard deduction for Federal, and then it imports those deductions for Oregon OR-A. So it all worked, and was accepted, even though it shows no option to do it. I did not see it until after I paid and printed everything out.

[traceman]

Any update on this? With TT Deluxe, I am filing with the standard deduction of $24,000 on the Federal form, but want to itemize on the Oregon form to include my mortgage interest from Form 1098.  TT doesn't include the Mortgage Interest on the Oregon Schedule A.  I entered the Mortgage Interest when filling out the Federal form, but TT didn't carry that forward.  I also cannot manually enter it on the Oregon Schedule A. I would hate to have to send in the snail mail form.

[morghan]

I ran into the same boat with being best off taking the Standard Deduction for Federal and itemizing for Oregon, but not being able to figure out how to do it on TurboTax. I filled in all my itemization numbers from my 1098 in TurboTax and it said the standard deduction was the best deal for Federal, so I picked that one. However, when I switched from the federal to the state return, it didn't give me any options to add new forms or chose the itemize state option. After poking around on the TT site with no luck, I ended up filling out the Oregon Schedule A and Oregon 40 forms on the free efile on the Oregon tax site, and they accepted my efile quickly. I had to retype all my information over, but it was worth the extra time to save the money. It would be nice to know the "trick" to make it work on TT for next year.

[andersonalan44]

The interest on one of my 1098's did not show up on my Schedule OR-A, but the property tax did. Is there a way to override what is populated on line 12?

[stewart-lori01]

SOLUTION:  For Mortgage Interest not showing on Form OR-A please do the following:  Click on Deductions & Credits/ Click Edit your Mortgage Interest/ answer all the questions that prompt during the interview for your Form 1098. Continue until you get to the question "Is this loan secured by a property of yours?" Answer YES if this loan is for your home. It is seen as being secured by that property.  You may not see this question if box 7 is checked on your 1098.  TurboTax automatically answers this question if box 7 is checked. click continue. finish the questions until you wrap up the interview about this 1098.  This should make the mortgage interest show up on your OR-A.


To change between standard deduction and itemized for your federal return. Type" itemized deductions, choosing " (do not put type the "") in the search box and click on Find. Click on jump to and this will take you to where you can select which deduction you want to use.  You will need to choose that you want to itemize for federal (even though you don't, we will change it back later).  Make sure you have entered all you itemized deductions before moving on to state.  If you have your state section completed, no worries you do NOT need to start a new state return.  Click on State/ continue/ click edit on your state.  This should have created a OR-A for you in your forms. You can check this by saving a PDF and seeing if an OR-A form is showing in your state return.  Now go back and change your federal deduction to standard deduction by using the search directions listed earlier.  Once you change your Federal back to Standard Deduction the OR-A form will still show in the state return.

Hope this helps! Happy Tax Filing!!