High Deductible Health Plan Contributions for Georgia Filing

[GeorgiaWildFlowerx]

Regarding the High Deductible Health Plan Contributions for Georgia filing, the 2017 package only specifies "Enter up to 100% of your annual premium as long as: 1) you didn't deduct these expenses as an itemized deduction and 2) your payments didn't come from a health reimbursement account.  I don't meet disqualification #1. As far as #2 goes, I realize that the HDHP premium lowers the AGI, but strictly speaking it is not part of federal itemized deductions either right? If that's the case, should I enter my premium, or do the instructions in the product this year need an update?

[GeorgiaWildFlowerx]

The reason I ask is because of this other similar question which did not address the current question.

"The Georgia High Deductible Health Plan deduction includes only the HDHP premiums that are not already accounted for on the federal return.

However, since the HDHP premiums are normally not taxed at the federal level (they are reported with code "DD" in box 12 on the W-2), you don't need to enter them on the Georgia return, because this effect carries through to the Georgia income for state purposes from the federal return.

Therefore, you are unlikely to need to enter anything in this field on the Georgia return.

The Georgia instructions say

"The amount [for the premium and HSA expenditures] may only be deducted to the extent the deduction has not been included in federal adjusted income and the expenses have not been provided from a health reimbursement arrangement and have not been included in itemized deductions." See the Georgia instructions."

[BMcCalpin]

Let me clarify my answer from before (yes, that was me you were quoting):

The two statements that I quoted from the state of Georgia ("to the extent the deduction has not been included in federal adjusted income" AND "the expenses have not been provided from a health reimbursement arrangement and have not been included in itemized deductions") are joined by an "and".

This means that both statements have to be true in order to deduct these health insurance premiums on the Georgia return.

You need to restate your statement above "1) you didn't deduct these expenses as an itemized deduction and 2) your payments didn't come from a health reimbursement account" to be "these deductions are not included in federal adjusted income" and "the expenses was not from an health reimbursement account nor an itemized deduction." By leaving off the first phrase "to the extent the deduction has not been included in federal adjusted income", you have missed the very item that disqualifies these health insurance premiums from being deducted in Georgia.

Simply put, your health insurance premiums are normally listed on your W-2 in box 12 with a code of DD. This amount is removed from Wages - thus this amount has been included in determining federal adjusted gross income. And since federal income flows to Georgia, deducting these premiums in Georgia would be a case of double-dipping.

[GeorgiaWildFlowerx]

To clarify, "my statement" is not something I came up with. "My statement" is the exact quote of the 2017 instructions from TurboTax (they state this ONLY: "Enter up to 100% of your annual premium as long as:  
- you didn't deduct these expenses as an itemized deduction
- your payments didn't come from a health reimbursement account")
 
That is the entire reason I am asking this question, because I think the instructions are misleading and incorrect.  Can you please confirm these instructions are incorrect and if so, please put in a request to adjust these instructions going forward? As you noted, they are leaving off an important phrase and missing the point entirely.

[BMcCalpin]

Ah, I see the problem. I was quoting the State of Georgia. I did not realize you were not, but were quoting from the TurboTax screen.

Yes, that TurboTax screen should mention that you should enter only premiums that are part of your federal AGI (i.e., not deducted from your federal income), that is, "after-tax".

TurboTax actually does say that "You can only deduct the amount to the extent the deduction has not been included in federal adjusted income and the expenses have not been provided from a health reimbursement arrangement and have not been included in itemized deductions. " This is on the screen "Here's the income that Georgia handles differently" when you click on the Learn More next to "High Deductible Health Plan Contributions" under Medical.

But not on the screen that you point out. I will forward this.

[w-evanrigdon]

For clarification. If there is an amount listed on my W-2 in box 12 under code "W" will I be able to list them again for Georgia as Health Plan Contributions.

[Controller512]

For clarification,  Box 12 DD on the W-2 is the amount paid by your EMPLOYER for healthcare and not the employee as part of the Affordable Healthcare Act and is for informational purposes.   This has been stated at several other posts at Turbo Tax.  It gets more confusing as dental and vision are optional.