Deduct property tax twice? Business>Income & Expense>Enter Real Estate Taxes AND Personal>Deductions & Credits>Enter the property taxes you paid.It ends up doubling.

[conniearnold]

If I enter the property tax paid in the two areas where it asks for it, Turbo Tax adds them together.  Am I misreading something?  Under the personal deductions and credit section it says "You reported $xx.xx in property tax on your home office. This amount should be the total property taxes paid on your main residence."  That sentence is not clear if I am supposed to enter the same dollar amount or enter zero since I already entered it under the Business Income & Expense section.

[BMcCalpin]

Enter the total amount of property tax paid in both places (business expenses and personal deductions). 

In my test case, I first entered $20,000 in property tax in the business expenses. I also entered home square footage as 3,000 and office square footage as 300, so the amount of home expenses like property tax to be allocated to the business is 10%.

When I went to personal expenses for Schedule A, the field for Property Taxes was already filled in with $20,000. If so, just leave it. If it's blank, then enter the same amount as you entered back on the business expenses page (i.e. the whole amount, like $20,000 in my example).

When I had reached a stopping point, the amount of the property tax allocated to the business was $2,000 (10% of $20,000), and the amount of property tax allocated to Schedule A was $18,000, just as you would have expected.

In other words, put the total amount paid in both places. If you set up the allocation process correctly in the business section, TurboTax will correctly divide the amount between your business and your itemized deductions.

I am a bit concerned that you said "It ends up doubling" - go back and re-enter the numbers the way I said, and then check the output (this means that you will have to manually compute what your Itemized Deductions should be and what your net Schedule C income should be, for comparison). If you are doing this online, you can see the results on the left at Tax Tools->Tools->View Tax Summary.

If you are doing this with the desktop product, I believe you can see the actual forms (Schedule A and Schedule C) by going to Forms.

[conniearnold]

Can I add pictures to this thread? I'd love to screne shot what I'm talking about.  I'm using the CD version.  Under the Personal Tab, Under Decutions & Credits it asks that I "Enter the Property Taxes You Paid This includes property taxes for your main home and any other porperty you onwned in 2017.  You reported $5,190 in property taxes on your home office. This amount should be the total property taxes paid on your main residence. Learn More.  Property Taxes 2016 ($4728.92 filled in already) 2017 (blank box)"  Here is where if I put in my $5,190 I get a "congratulations you get a 10k deduction.  So I have to enter zero (even though last year it must have worked to enter the tax here becuase it auto filled last year's amount.  This year if I put in $5190 here it I get the congrats you get a 10k deduction.  I called the QB help and was told to leave it zero.  I just wanted to state one more time that I think this is a problem with the software or the wording.  I would be happy to send you screen shots (via email or whatever works)  Connie

[conniearnold]

When I leave the box as zero I get the good news "your property tax deduction is $4,863 and $327 is reported separately under your home office" which is how it should be.

[BMcCalpin]

No, you can't add pictures to screen shots, but I see what you are saying. I used the online product; since you used the desktop version, let me look at it further...

[BMcCalpin]

When I stepped through my test, doing business expenses first then the itemized deductions, I got the same result on desktop that I did online - I entered $20,000 as property tax paid with a 10% home office allocation (so I got a $2,000 deduction). When I returned to the itemized deductions on the federal return and got to Property Taxes, on the screen entitled "Enter the Property Taxes you paid", on the first line for 2017, my $20,000 total was already entered so I just hit Continue. Sure enough, on the next screen, TurboTax told me that "Good News: You qualify for a property tax deduction of $18,000. $2,000 is reported separately under your home office" which is correct.

So far, it looks like online and desktop look to be operating the same way, although I understand your point about possible confusion on what to enter. Even when I deleted TurboTax's $20,000 entry and coded $20,000 again (like you did), the calculations remained correct.

It seems you are on the ball and have done your own due diligence to verify that the deductions are correct and in the correct places. Since we on AnswerXchange can't see your screen, if you want to pursue this, I would suggest that you contact phone support where an agent (with your permission) can see your screen.

[conniearnold]

Thank you so much for looking into this.  It sounds like you've done everything possible to duplicate the error I'm experiencing and it souds like I have entered everything correctly and that my 'work around' by entering zero resolves it for me.  So I guess we will just leave it.  If my contacting phone support and giving computer control over would help Intuit and Turbo Tax resolve a problem that others might experience too I'd be happy to do that. But, if they are just going to tell me to enter zero, then I've already got that.

[VolvoGirl]

By the way, you can attach screen shots by editing your question at the top or by using a reply/answer box but not a comment box.  Be sure to redact/cover up any Personal Info.

[conniearnold]

Ok cool  I just added them to the question.

[conniearnold]

On the screen shot attached to my questioni that I named "refund with no tax entered" it shows how Turbo Tax asks me about property tax when I get to the personal deductions.  In speaking to a rep on the phone who had access to my computer she said this sentence is saying I should not enter any more tax.  "You reported $5,190 in property taxes on your home office. This amount should be the total property tax pad o your main residence." I'm saying, if so, that sentence is not clear and the way last year's property tax is right there in the box next to it makes it look like I SHOULD enter that same amount.  My suggestion is that Intuit make the wording more clear if the intent is the leave that blank.  Thank you for your time.  I love using TurboTax!!

[pixmation]

The bug is still there in 2021.

On the "Enter any additional property tax you paid in 2021" page. It has the entry that I previously entered.

But if I leave the Property Taxes box blank. It will double my property taxes deduction minus the home office portion.

I have to enter "0" in the field in order for it to calculate it correctly without doubling the property tax deduction amount.

[esbaluta]

The bug still exists for 2024 as well.

[ThomasM125]

The property tax routine seems to be working properly as far as I can tell. I entered the property tax in the home office section of TurboTax and when I go to the personal section, under Your Home in the Deductions and Credits section, I see where I get a message that says Don't enter your home office deduction, $3,000 is already included, which is the amount I entered in the business section. Then, when I go to the Schedule A, I see where $2,500 is deducted as an itemized deduction, which is the total property tax less the amount allocated to the home office, as it should be:

@esbaluta

[esbaluta]

I spoke directly with Turbotax on this issue. I have the Home & Business edition, and I have more than one business. After entering the data together with Turbotax support specifically in the Home Office deduction for each business (should reflect as a percent), the property taxes were doubled in the "excess property tax" section. The solution was to zero that out at the end of the process when reviewing total property taxes; however, others may have entered this data without realizing that it was doubled and will receive a larger deduction/refund due to this issue. I believe there is an error in how Turbotax calculates this as that doubled figure should not appear there. It was escalated to management at Turbotax.