I forgot to deduct car registration tax. Do I have to amend my return?

[Question4]

Hello, I'm just noticing that my 2018 tax return didn't include my car registration tax deduction. It was less than $200 and when I tried amending on turbotax, it didn't seem to make a difference in my return at all (had a $0 at the top all throughout). It then asked me to print and mail in my amended return, but I'm wondering if this is necessary. I have not submitted it yet.

Am I legally obligated to amend a tax return for missing car registration tax information? Many thanks in advance for your help!

[SteamTrain · Accepted solution]

No, You are not required to report it.

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It's possible it had no effect because either: a) You were using the Std Deduction, and the extra $$ still didn't put you into itemized deduction territory, or b) you were already getting all your withholding and prepaid taxes back...so adding a gazillion $$ of new deductions wouldn't do anything.

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Never amend until your original tax filing is "accepted" by the IRS.....and if you e-filed the state, you need to wait for a response from them too.  It's also best to wait for your original refund too...or pay any original balance due, if any.

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You should go back and remove the amended data.    Don't ever Amend until months after your original was filed since there may be other changes you discover you need to make.  That commonly happens fore people who file this early...they"forget" about the bank interest, or investment account dividends, or get a corrected W-2C in March...and you don't want to attempt to amend two or three time.   You just gather the various changes you think you need to make in a folder and do the amendments in (say) June.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/amending/help/how-do-i-cancel-or-undo-an-amended-return-in-turbota...

[Question4]

Thanks so much that's a relief I don't have to amend my 2018 return! 

I filed it almost a year ago and was just concerned that this was something I was required to report that I left out by mistake. I did use the standard deduction and the less than $200 car registration tax deduction was all I was missing. 

I canceled my amended return without removing the data first so I ended up creating a new request to amend my 2018 return, removing the data I input the last time, and canceling the amended return again. 

Is this the right way to do this? I wasn't sure how to go back to the amended return I canceled without going this route. Again, thanks so much for all of your guidance on this! 

[SteamTrain]

1) don't know exactly about the Amend Undo stuff...never did it myself, I only know where the help page is.

2)  IF you do attempt to sue them in the coming years.....remember that only the property tax portion can be used as the deduction.  Any flat fees are not allowed to be included.   For example, the NC vehicle reregistration includes the DMV fee, City Property tax, County Property tax, and some cities also have a flat re-registration fee.  but only the two actual property taxes can be included in the TurboTax deduction.  Other states probably do things differently, so you'd have to parse out the proper amount yourself.