Maine Property Tax Fairness Credit

Yes, according to Maine.gov, if you meet the following requirements, you are eligible for the credit.

1. Were Maine residents during any part of the tax year;
2. Owned or rented a home in Maine during any part of the tax year and lived in that home during the year as a primary residence;
3. Paid property tax or rent on the primary residence in Maine during the tax year;
4. Meet certain income and property tax and/or rent paid limitations during the tax year.
5. Are not married filing separately.

Turbotax Maine claims that I do not qualify for this credit because my income is more than $54,000.  Where do they get my income amount in Turbotax??  The number they provided from my Maine turbotax return is $43,000 more than my 1040 Adjusted Gross Income.  What's going on here?

If you will read the instructions for the form PROPERTY TAX FAIRNESS CREDIT SALES TAX FAIRNESS CREDIT, you will notice that while your AGI on the 1040 consists of only taxable income, the amount for testing this credit is the gross amounts you have received. This means you have to add back any untaxed unemployment, any untaxed Social Security, any untaxed pension distributions, etc. in order to see if you qualify for the credit.

Make sense?

I was finally able to track down the Fairness Credit worksheet so I could see where the numbers came from.  They still didn't add up, but it explained the difference.