How can I take the standard deduction on my NY return, while itemizing on my Federal?

[federicotorre]

I lived in TX & NY. I purchased a house in TX and TT is applying the TX mortgage/property tax deductions from the itemized federal return to the NY state return. Is there a way to switch NY to a standard deduction so this doesn't happen?

[NCperson]

which state is your primary residence? TT will calculate the state that is not your primary state first and THEN complete the state that is primary.  what dates did you state you lived in each state? 

[federicotorre]

Texas is my primary residence. I lived in NYC from 1/1/20 to 4/6/20, and Texas from 4/7/20 until now. I purchased my home in Texas. Texas has no state income tax return. I went through the entire process and for obvious reasons itemized my deductions on my federal return. When I did my state return for NY I thought it would ask me about deductions but it automatically itemized them from the federal return. I noticed the resulting tax amount for NY looked off and when I was ready to file reviewed the forms and saw that, in the NY state deductions, it itemized them and placed mortgage interest and property taxes on them. I haven't found a way to change that.

[Opus 17]

@federicotorre 

I tried looking at this last night, and New York’s instructions are not clear.  New York states that if you use this federal standard deduction, you can choose to itemize on your state return if that is better for you. This is a change that was created after the federal tax law was changed in 2018. However, I could not find a reciprocal statement that you may file with the New York standard deduction if you itemize on your federal return.  I did find a statement that the New York tax law was changed in 2020 to give the tax department the authority to correct your tax return and pay you a larger refund if you used itemized deductions but the tax department finds in their processing that the standard deduction would have given you a larger refund.  So it seems like you should be able to choose the standard deduction in New York, but I’m not sure where this would be in the New York module in TurboTax.   It would probably be at the very beginning of the New York module when you are asked to confirm your address, your school district, and other personal facts.

if you are using the desktop version of TurboTax installed on your own computer, there may be a way to go into the forms mode and force the program to take the New York standard deduction, by checking the correct box on form IT-203 or one of the worksheets.

[federicotorre]

Unfortunately I am using the online version, not the desktop version. I guess the first question is: Can I claim property tax and mortgage insurance deductions on my NY state tax return even though the property (also my primary residence) is not in NY and was purchased the day after I moved out of NY?

My assumption here is no, which is why I was asking how I can switch the NY to a standard deduction. I don't want NY holding up my refund because I claimed deductions I shouldn't have.

BUT, if I can claim those deductions on the NY return, then I guess TT is doing the right thing, seeing as the itemized deductions on the NY state return give me a bigger NY refund than the standard deduction. 

If I can't claim those deductions on the NY state return, then my original question stands. I can go through it again and redo it to see if anything was missed, but I am pretty sure TT online didn't offer me the option of taking a standard deduction for NY.

[Opus 17]

@federicotorre 

I don’t have time to research this fully, and I moved out of New York two years ago so I don’t have the New York tax module installed on my computer to test. Here are the instructions for itemized deductions in New York. I would start by reading through the instructions and seeing if there are any allocation rules that you use when you file the part your resident tax return, which is form IT-203.

https://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/current_forms/it/it196i.pdf

I saw at least one place where it said that if you are using form IT-203, you do something different than if you are using form IT-201, but I don’t have time to study it right now.

[suzannedistefano]

On my New york state return how can I change to standard deduction

[ReneeM7122]

Yes, you can take the standard deduction on my NY return, while itemizing on your Federal, but once you've filed your Federal, you'll have to either recreate it or file separately through the NYS itself.  You cannot file a state return separately in TurboTax without recreating your federal return. Please view the TurboTax FAQ below for more information.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/4232481

@suzannedistefano

[panmig2020]

Thank you for this reply.

I had done the same thing.  This was extremely helpful and makes a lot of sense.  Probably not a good idea to file through turbo tax unless turbo tax has the state desktop version separately.  Other then that need to file straight through NY State Site.