The IRS (https://www.irs.gov/publications/p529#en_US_202012_publink100012458) says "You can no longer claim a deduction for unreimbursed employee expenses unless you fall into one of the following categories of employment, or have certain qualified educator expenses.
Armed Forces reservists.
Qualified performing artists.
Fee-basis state or local government officials.
Employees with impairment-related work expenses"
However, on turbo tax windows (screenshot below), it says I can still claim the job related expenses deduction if I had to buy things for my W2 job out of pocket. When I filled in all the information, including home business deduction (worked from home for some time), turbo tax shows I was able to take quite a bit of deduction which I didn't think was allowed? (especially the home business deduction part)
Which one of these categories do you fall under?
Armed Forces reservists.
Qualified performing artists.
Fee-basis state or local government officials.
Employees with impairment-related work expenses"
None, I worked as a Teaching Assistant (grad student) and received a w2, so I don't think my job should qualify for the deduction.
The weird thing is after I selected "I do not belong to any of these categories" (or something like that), TurboTax still took me to the next page to fill in all the expenses, even including home business deduction (I taught an online class from home, it didn't have to be online but the professor wanted it to be).
The software lets you enter the expenses because information flows over from your federal return to state returns. Some states (only a few) allow job-related expenses as a state deduction. You will not get a federal deduction for your job-related expenses if you are not in one of the listed categories.