SALES TAX
You can enter the sales tax you paid for the car you purchased in 2024 by going to
Federal>Deductions and Credits>Estimates and Other Taxes Paid> Sales Tax.
You will be asked if you paid sales tax on a major purchase, and you will be able to enter the sales tax you paid for your new vehicle.
Sales tax is an itemized deduction. Unless you have enough other itemized deductions (such as mortgage interest, medical expenses, charity donations...) to exceed your standard deduction the sales tax will have no effect on your tax due or refund.
“Major purchases” that you can enter for the sales tax deduction include:
Motor Vehicles (cars, trucks, motor homes, RV’s, sport utility vehicles and off-road vehicles
Aircraft or boats
Mobile homes
Manufactured housing
Building materials for major home improvements
You cannot deduct: furniture, jewelry, home electronics such as TV’s or computers
If you are claiming itemized deductions on your return instead of the standard deduction, then adding the sales tax that you paid for the car may be beneficial.
When you are working through the possible deductions, TurboTax will compare your state and local taxes withheld versus your sales tax deduction based on where you live. If the sales tax deduction is more beneficial, then you can add sales tax paid on major purchases, such as your car.
Use the following TurboTax help article as a guide to enter the sales tax:
I am using TuroboxTax 2024 for Mac and I do not get a prompt asking me if I made any big ticket purchases in the sales tax section, and I do not see any other place to enter this information. Can anyone clarify whether this is still an option and, if so, how to enter the information?
TurboTax for Mac does have the prompt in the Sales Tax section, under Deductions & Credits, Estimates and Other Taxes Paid, Sales Tax. I just tested this with my Mac.
You can choose EasyGuide in the Sales Tax section and the option should appear on the screen after the one where you enter your state and local sales tax rate. However, if you click past the screen about Major Purchases, it may not appear again on a second pass.
If that happens, go to Forms mode and pull up the Tax and Interest worksheet. Click somewhere in the form where the major purchase sales tax would go, then go back to EasyStep. When I did this, the Major Purchase screen showed up again in the Sales Tax interview.