Turbotax issue

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
April 15, 2022
2 replies
27 views

Turbotax won't do the itemized deductions I need to do since my separated, but not divorced spouse, is filing itemized. WE are filing as "married, but separate" tax returns. It keeps changing to "standardized" deductions right after I hit "continue" with itemized deductions just before doing the state taxes. HELP!!!!

hbl3973

Alumni - Champ

Dablazes,

There is nothing in the instructions for form 1040 and Schedule A that says that if one spouse itemizes the other has to as well. I suspect you missed a checkbox under the personal information section. The 1040 instructions state:

Married Filing Separately
If your filing status is married filing separately and your spouse itemizes deductions on his or her return, check the “Spouse itemizes on a separate return or you were a dual-status alien” box.
If your filing status is married filing separately and your spouse was born before January 2, 1957, or was blind at the end of 2021, you can check the appropriate box(es) on the line labeled “Age/Blindness” if your spouse had no income, isn't filing a return, and can't be claimed as a dependent on another person's return.

DablazesAuthor

Level 2

To repeat: I had already checked 'married, filing separate' & the box indicating I or my spouse would be filing itemized deductions. For further clarification: after entering my income & itemized deductions the program calculated & confirmed my itemized deductions. The SOFTWARE issue is that when I clicked "continue" to go to the next step-on to state taxes-the PROGRAM CHANGED my deduction to standard. I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO SWITCH IT. There is apparently a flaw in the program that overrides the married filing separate & needing to itemize because the spouse is itemizing, possibly/probably because standard deductions would save me a few hundred dollars. However, HIS needs to be itemized to save a few thousand dollars. There appears to be a flaw in the software & I can't reach anyone at TurboTax to alert them &/or fix my return. It's very frustrating to have to be in this "community" in order to try to get help. At this point, I guess I'm going to have to file an amended return in order to fix the problem that the TurboTax software created