I'm late filing (but getting a refund so not concerned) with my federal and state (Minnesota) tax returns with TurboTax Premium. I itemize on my federal return (despite the SALT cap) due to high a level of charitable deductions. For the same reason, I believe it will be favorable for me to take the Standard Deduction in Minnesota (although it will be somewhat reduced by the Standard Deduction Limitation imposed by MN) and then take additional (partial) deductions for charitable deductions via filing M1M. This is what I've done in prior years via TurboTax.
However, when I file through TurboTax (Premium) and elect (which it even recommends) taking the Standard Deduction, the actual tax return generated by TurboTax for MN is the itemized MN return (with M1SA) rather than showing the Standard Deduction and M1M. I'm not sure why this is happening. I even deleted the entire MN state return and started again but it is producing the same effect. I don't have the "live tax advice" feature of TurboTax because I haven't paid for it (and would prefer not to) since I view this merely as a technical problem.
Does anyone have any advice on how I can "force" TurboTax to actually take the "Standard Deduction" on my MN return? If not, any advice on how I might get TurboTax to address this issue.?
Incidentally, I think several folks have discussed some aspect of this issue in previous posts (see https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/state-taxes/discussion/minnesota-charitable-contributions-with-standard-deduction-disappears-after-entering-software-bug/00/3253024 and https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-credits-deductions/discussion/unable-to-choose-mn-standard-deduction-rather-than-itemized-deduction/00/3595686) but I don't believe these explanations show that that the TurboTax software is acting correctly.
In my view, the TurboTax software is determining (without directly indicating as such) to the software user that since the MN Standard Deduction is limited (which it is) that it must be better for the MN taxpayer to "Itemize". However, while that is true on a surface level (Line 4 on Form M1 will be higher with the itemized deductions) itemizing is better, it seems to me that TurboTax is ignoring that by taking the Standard Deduction (even if a bit more limited) the taxpayer can then take additional subtractions on Line 7 of M1 for charitable deductions.
I'm tempted to believe that I'm missing something but this is how TurboTax has filed my taxes in the past so it seems odd that this isn't allowed now.