Standard vs Itemized Deductions

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
February 27, 2021
3 replies
39 views

As I am completing the Deductions and Credits section in TurboTax, the message informs me that "We've chosen itemized deductions for you" and "What you are getting: Federal Itemized Deductions". Doing so provides for $130 more deductions, so itemized is the way I want to go. However, when I finalize my return, it uses the Standard Deduction. Why???

ReneeM7122

Level 9

It's possible that the software chose the standard deduction after completing the calculations.

To double check, take a look at your total itemized deductions on Schedule A line 17, and your 1040 line 12. If the amount is lower than the standard deduction, then the software has calculated correctly.

The standard deduction for 2020 is as follows:

Single taxpayers: $12,400
Married taxpayers filing a joint return: $24,800
Heads of household: $18,650

Here is a TurboTax article about the standard deduction vs. itemizing.

To view forms in TurboTax,:

If you want to preview your tax return before filing, follow the steps below:

Sign into your TurboTax account
Click Take me to my return
Click My Account and choose Tools
You will then see Other Helpful Links and can select the option View Tax Summary
Choose Preview my 1040 and you can click Back to leave the preview screen.

To view Schedule A and other worksheets in your tax return, follow the steps below:

Click My Account and then choose Print Center
Click Print, save, or preview this years return. You will then be prompted to register or pay if you haven’t done so to view your full return.

BarryDGreenAuthor

Level 2

My total itemized deductions are 26,230, while my standard deduction is 26,100 (married, with one of us being over age 65). So my itemized deduction is slightly larger.

However, after further review, I see that on my form 1040-SR, that line 10b, allows me to claim 300 of my charitable contributions as a negative adjustment to my income... but only if I take the standard deduction. Therefore, taking the standard deduction + the negative adjustment to my total income, that gives me the lowest taxable income. Is this correct?