Real Estate/Property Tax Error

[marimb]

Edit: Never mind, I figured it out. We omitted the property taxes in a different area of the return by accident. Adding it in fixed the issue.

While reviewing my return before filing, TurboTax said there was an error which showed that the property/real estate taxes I paid in 2022 was a negative number.

I have a home office in a home that I own and so I entered both my real estate/property taxes and mortgage interest as "excess" when filling out the home office section. I went back to the "Property (Real Estate) Tax" section under "Deductions and Credits" to try to fix this error. It says "Don't enter your home office deduction", and I mistakenly put the total amount of taxes in there the first time, so now I'm trying to put "$0" in this section. However, when I do that and click "Continue", a screen comes up that says "We need a bit more info to see if you qualify", and when I click "Enter Info", it brings me back to the same form that I just tried to enter "$0" in. If I click "Skip for Now", it goes back to the main "Deductions and Credits" section and the negative number is still there.

We are taking the Standard Deduction, so I don't even know if this section really needs to be filled out, but I don't want the error in there when I file. How do I fix this?

[HopeS · Accepted solution]

If you are self-employed and received a Form 1099NEC you can take your home office which is based on the square footage of your home office versus the total square foot of your home. Please be aware that employees working from home can't take the home office deduction, even if they've been asked to work from home due to COVID-19. This has been in place since 2018 when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law.

 If you are qualified to take home office deductions, see the steps below:

1. Click on the dropdown arrow next to Less common under the 10 categories recommended for you on the screen that says First, select the expenses you know you had
2. Scroll down the list to locate the Home office deduction
3. Click on Add under Home Office
4. Continue and click Start next to Home office on the next screen

You should revisit your entries using the above steps to get to the Home Office section. Once there you can modify the entries you made.

If you decide to not claim the deduction you can delete Form 8829 as follows:

1. Select Tax Tools from the menu on the left.
2. Then select Tools.
3. When the new menu pops up select Delete a Form.
4. You will see a list of all the forms in your return.
5. Find the form that you want to delete.
6. Select the Form.
7. Click Delete on the right

@marimb