Do I change the date of my state estimated tax 4th quarter payment that I made in 2017 when filing my 2016 return?

[wejoyners4]

I see that Turbo Tax advises to "change the date paid if necessary".

[davidsed]

How do I change the date registered in Its Deductable? Entries for 2016 are currently mistakenly in 2017.

[AnthonyC · Accepted solution]

You would only change the date of the payment if you actually made the payment earlier - i.e. you made the payment in 2016 even though the 4th quarter payment isn't due until Jan of 2017.  

If you didn't make the payment until 2017, then that quarter will not go on your 2016 return.  You can only deduct payments that are actually paid in the tax year.  You will see there is an option in estimated taxes for this year for "2015 state estimated tax payments made in 2016" - so next year, you would enter the payment there to get credit.  For the future, you can make the payment earlier in order to make sure you can deduct the full payments in the year.

[mshuang1]

I'm seeing conflcting answers on this - could an expert please clarify. IN another Q&A, someone said that for federal taxes, the Q4 payment made in the following year 2017 is deductible for 2016. Is this true and how could you enter this in TurboTax?

[VolvoGirl]

Yes.  Federal and state are different.  You need to enter the exact date you made the payment.  The 4th quarter payment is not due until Jan 15.  Even if you pay it in Jan it still applies to the tax due on both the federal and state returns.

The difference is if you pay a state estimated payment by Dec 31 you can also deduct it as an Itemized deduction on federal schedule A.  Otherwise it goes on the next year's federal Itemized Deductions.  But it still counts as a payment on the STATE current year tax return.

Hope that is more clear.