Every year I painstakingly answer dozens of questions that all relate to itemizing, only for TT to invariably find that I should take the standard deduction. I hate wasting the time, but don't want to accidentally miss something important by skipping over sections. I would like it if TT asked me early on whether I want to A) take the standard deduction, or B) to itemize. And, then when I select A, only to ask me the questions necessary for that. Is it already possible? Or is there an easy way that I should know about for which sections to skip because I don't want or need to itemize?
If you answer all the income questions, then go to the Deductions and Credits page, and simply click "done" at the bottom without running any of the sections, turbotax will assign you the standard deduction. (The program will still ask about a few common deductions to make sure you haven't missed them, but you can answer "no" to everything if you already know you want to use the standard deduction.)
Of course, the whole point of Turbotax is to enter everything so you "don't accidentally miss something" and let the program choose for you in the end, but you can bypass that if you know you don't need it.
If you want to skip entering your itemized deductions you can do that. Many people will not have enough itemized deductions this year to itemize, and will just be getting their new higher standard deduction. The thing is, though, that some of those deductions could make a difference on a state return even if they do not affect your federal return. Information flows from your federal return to your state return, so it might not be a bad idea to go ahead and enter them anyhow. It cannot hurt you.
The following states allow you to itemize deductions on just the state return: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, and Wisconsin,
I live in a state with no income tax, so we don't file state returns.
Agreed! It would be much simpler if TT asked early on a couple key questions, and then ask you to confirm that you would like the Standard Deduction interview questions the rest of the way through.
As SweetieJean said above, you can itemize in some states, and their rules for itemizing can be different than what's on the federal return.
Indeed, some things are deductible on some state returns that may not be deductible on the federal return or which may be limited.
So you can skip itemizing as noted above, but ONLY if you know that you don't want be doing it for either the federal or for the state return.