Standard Deduction for those over 65 - No explanation/breakdown provided when reviewing - Feedback for Intuit

[macuser_22]

Ask your congress person who passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018  that requires it (section 41106).  Do most Congress acts make sense?

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1892/text

SEC. 41106. <<NOTE: 26 USC 7805 note.>>  FORM 1040SR FOR SENIORS.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of the Treasury (or the Secretary's 
delegate) shall make available a form, to be known as ``Form 1040SR'', 
for use by individuals to file the return of tax imposed by chapter 1 of 
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. Such form shall be as similar as 
practicable to Form 1040EZ, except that--
            (1) the form shall be available only to individuals who have 
        attained age 65 as of the close of the taxable year,
            (2) the form may be used even if income for the taxable year 
        includes--
                    (A) social security benefits (as defined in section 
                86(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986),
                    (B) distributions from qualified retirement plans 
                (as defined in section 4974(c) of such Code), annuities 
                or other such deferred payment arrangements,
                    (C) interest and dividends, or
                    (D) capital gains and losses taken into account in 
                determining adjusted net capital gain (as defined in 
                section 1(h)(3) of such Code), and
            (3) the form shall be available without regard to the amount 
        of any item of taxable income or the total amount of taxable 
        income for the taxable year.

While that law says nothing about larger type, the IRS decided to revise the 1040 form for everyone to a "simple" one page form with new schedules.  But the law required that the  1040SR could ONLY be available to seniors so to make the form unique to seniors they increased the type size for the 1040SR only, otherwise the 1040 and 1040SR are exactally the same now.  AFAIK it was an IRS workaround to comply with the law after they revised the form to be the same for everyone - the SR had to be different.

[sfeldma2]

Even though TT has my age input, it will not give me the age 65 plus additional deduction.  I spoke with a rep who said he would call back but never did. 

So, it is using my itemized which is less and still giving me an extra 600 for charitable contributions.  What am I doing wrong

[AnnetteB6]

In order for the additional amount to be added to your standard deduction for 2021, you must have been born before January 2, 1957.  

Try using the detailed steps in the following TurboTax help article to change to the standard deduction instead of itemized deductions: 

How do I change from the standard deduction to itemized (or vice-versa)?

@sfeldma2

[VolvoGirl]

@sfeldma2   You have the 600 on 1040 line 12b?  Then you are getting the Standard Deduction on line 12a.  Or the 600 charity would be added to schedule A not line 12b.  Do you have the schedule A?  How much is the deduction on line 12a?  You might be misinterpreting the amount.   What do you think your Standard Deduction should be?

[taxpayerNY]

I am a single taxpayer filing income taxes for the year 2021.

Question:   Does the additional amount ($1,700) added to the Standard Deduction for those over 65 years old apply to income taxes for 2021 if you were 64 years old in 2021, but turned 65 years old in early 2022, when you filed your taxes?

[DoninGA]

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@taxpayerNY wrote:

I am a single taxpayer filing income taxes for the year 2021.

Question:   Does the additional amount ($1,700) added to the Standard Deduction for those over 65 years old apply to income taxes for 2021 if you were 64 years old in 2021, but turned 65 years old in early 2022, when you filed your taxes?

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No.  You had to be born before January 2, 1957 on the 2021 tax return to be eligible for the additional amount added to the Standard Deduction.

[taxpayerNY]

Thank you for the reply!