"Tell us about the refund you recieved in 2025" Question

[juliesmash16]

I am currently at the point where it is asking me about my refund for 2025. I use turbotax every year and it has auto filled in that I received a 5 dollar refund last year and a number for the payments and withholdings. I checked my documents from last year and the number it auto filled for payments and withholdings was correct but I did not receive a five dollar refund and actually owed money last year. What do I do? Should I just trust their number and assume they have it right? I don't know how I would even correct it since it would be a negative amount of money. Any help would be very appreciate!!

[DawnC]

If it is $5, it won't have much of an impact, if any at all.   It is asking about your state refund from last year, not your IRS refund, so $5 may be the correct amount.   State refunds won't be taxable unless you itemized and received a tax benefit from taking the deduction.   

Your state and local income tax refunds are not taxable if any of the following apply:

- You took the standard deduction in the prior year (you did not itemize your deductions).
- You had negative taxable income (your deductions exceeded your adjusted gross income).
- You itemized deductions, and elected to deduct state and local general sales tax instead of state and local income taxes.

[juliesmash16]

Hi! I checked the state taxes and it said that I owed 6 dollars so I do not know where they got that I was refunded 5 dollars. I did use the standard deduction last year but I can't get around this question because Turbotax keeps bringing me back to it so I'm not sure how I should answer it since the real answer would be a negative number? Thanks!

[AnnetteB6]

Since you did not itemize your deductions for your 2024 tax return, you could leave the $5 amount that was filled in by TurboTax and it would not affect your return at all.  Or, change it to $0 to indicate that you did not receive a refund.  

If you are using itemized deductions on your 2025 tax return, you can also claim that $6 balance due as part of your return.  Again, that small amount of money will probably not affect your return at all, but it would be included.  

Go to Deductions and Credits > Estimates and Other Taxes Paid > Other Income Taxes and click Start or Update.  Then scroll down to Other Taxes Paid in 2025 and click Start beside Balance due on your 2024 state taxes paid in 2025 to enter the $6 payment.

@juliesmash16