Standard Deduction

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
March 19, 2020
2 replies
29 views

To get the most advantageous return possible Turbotax decided to give me the Standard Deduction. This is fine however Maryland requires that if I take the Standard Deduction for the Federal return, I must take the Standard Deduction for my state return. Maryland, however, is nowhere as generous as the feds and I end up paying a fortune in Maryland taxes. If I can take itemized deductions for the federal return even though I might pay more to the feds I will come out better overall. Can I force Turbotax to Itemize my deductions?

Best answer by bluedeb

Yes, you can change your Federal return to use itemized deductions.

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

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/accessing/help/how-do-i-change-from-the-standard-deduction-to-itemized-or-vice-versa/00/25831

bluedeb

Answer

Alumni - Champ

Yes, you can change your Federal return to use itemized deductions.

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

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/accessing/help/how-do-i-change-from-the-standard-deduction-to-itemized-or-vice-versa/00/25831

Vopors

Level 2

Should I takes standard deduction

DeanM15

Level 10

TurboTax will default to the Standard Deduction if it exceeds the itemized deductions you enter on the Federal side.

If you need to force itemized deduction for state purposes, you can follow these instructions:

With your tax return open, select Federal from the navigation menu on the left (if you're doing this on a mobile device, you'll probably need to scroll down).
Now select Deductions & Credits near the top of your screen.
Proceed through the screens, answering questions as necessary. Eventually, you'll come to the screen Based on what you just told us, the Standard Deduction is best for you or Based on what you just told us, itemizing deductions is best for you.
On that screen, pictured below, select Change my deduction. You'll get a pop-up showing how much each deduction is worth.
From here, you can either change your deduction by selecting it and continuing forward or cancel out.