I reported my property tax payment on the wrong year's return, '21-'23. Should I not report property tax this yr & get back in sync in 2025 or file multi-yr corrections?

[shaina.baskett]

For instance, I reported my 2024 property tax payment on my 2023 tax return, and I just paid the next property tax payment in Jan 2025. The largest discrepancy between those payments is less than $500. I'm not seeking a refund; it's more about whether there is any concern w/the misstatements in general.

[xmasbaby0]

You are supposed to enter the property tax payments for the year in which you actually paid the tax, not which year the tax was "for".   If you actually paid it in 2024, put it on your 2024 tax return if you are itemizing deductions.

[KrisD15]

Do you know if any of the "mistaken" payments made a difference in you tax liability? 

For your federal returns, if you took the Standard Deduction and did not Itemize Deductions (which means you would NOT have Schedule A with your tax forms) the timing of the tax payments would not matter. 

For the state returns, do you know if you received any credit based on the property tax payments? 

If you were mistakenly reporting the payments on the previous year tax return, did you also miss reporting a payment (because you put it on the previous year return) and if so, does that even out the payments you reported? 

@shaina.baskett

[shaina.baskett]

@KrisD15 Thanks for the reply! So, I don't know if (or how much) my mistaken reporting of past property payments impacted my tax liability without redoing those years of taxes that were mis-reported.

I do not pay state taxes as I live in TX.

For Federal, 2022 was the first year I started taking the standard deduction, all years prior to that for which I owned a home were itemized deductions. I received my first property tax bill in 2015 – after digging out old records, some years I reported tax in the correct year and other years I made 2 payments and only reported one of them but in the wrong tax reporting year. For example, I made 2 payments in both 2016 and 2018 but only reported one correctly for each tax year and the other payment in a year I shouldn't have (2015 and 2017). I have never reported the same payment twice. I reported it correctly in 2020 (Dec payment) and understand the IRS usually isn't looking back beyond 3yrs. So, the question remains, is it necessary to correct 2021-2023 taxes considering it only matters for itemized taxes (which is only 2021 for the past 3 years) or just not reflecting a 2024 property tax payment (since it was reported on 2023 taxes) and getting back on track when reporting my 2025 taxes next year? 

Thanks for the help.

[AmyC]

If you did not itemize, the property tax has no effect on your tax liability and you do not need to amend.

If you did itemize, and the property tax had an effect, then you would amend.

I think you are saying that you have not been itemizing since 2021, so you don't need to amend. You should properly report the amount paid moving forward, start with 2024. The large standard deduction is set to expire and we may go back to itemizing. No crystal balls here to know what will really happen so go ahead and get things straight starting now.

[shaina.baskett]

So, to clarify, I itemized taxes in 2021. Taxes for 2022 and 2023 were NOT itemized (I took the standard deduction). 
If I’m understanding you correctly, even though I already reported my 2024 property tax payment on my 2023 taxes, because I did NOT itemize in 2023, it has no effect on my 2023 taxes. Therefore, there is no need to amend 2023 taxes and I can report that property tax payment correctly for 2024 tax reporting. Is that correct? 🙂 Thanks!

[KeshaH]

That's correct. Since you didn't itemize your deductions in 2022 and 2023 you won't need to amend anything for those years.