I filed my 2018 taxes in 2020. I am now filing my 2019 taxes. I received a refund from my 2018 taxes in 2020. Turbo Tax wants to automatically enter that refund under Income 1099 misc. Do I enter 0 and wait for a 1099G for 2020?

[kck5419]

I filed my 2018 taxes in 2020. I am now filing my 2019 taxes. I received a refund from my State 2018 taxes in 2020. Turbo Tax wants to automatically enter that refund under Income 1099 misc.

  Since I did not yet receive a 1099G for that 2018 refund, Do I enter 0 now and wait for a 1099G and enter it on my 2020 taxes?

  Or do I go ahead and include it on my 2019 return to avoid a Red Flag from the IRS?

[VolvoGirl]

No do not enter it as income on 2019.  So I guess change it to zero.  It will go on your 2020 return.  But it may not be taxable.  Did you itemize Deductions on your 2018 return or take the Standard Deduction?  Most people switched to the Standard Deduction since it increased in 2018.

Did you start 2019 by transferring from 2018?  Are you using the Desktop program?  (You could not do 2018 Online this year in 2020).

[kck5419]

   I have been using the desktop version for quite a while now. I have used the online version before and it worked but for some reason I made the decision to use the desktop for the last many years. 

   I knew I had a refund coming (no penalties to worry about) so I procrastinated on doing my 2018 return until I heard that in order to get the stimulus payment I needed to have completed a 2018 or a 2019 tax return.

   That is when I learned that I could no longer E-File after the October deadline. So I had to mail in my returns back in March of this year. That was expensive when I had already paid for Free E-file when I purchased TurboTax. So that took a very long time with the IRS not processing paper returns for a very long time.

   I took the standard deduction in 2018.

   My 2018 was transfered by TurboTax automatically.

   When I clicked on continue with the refund included on my 2019 return, I did receive a pop up message saying that it was not taxable.

[Opus 17]

It sounds like you have the right result. If the state tax return was taxable federal income, it would be taxable income in the year it was actually received, not the year it was for.  Since you received it in 2020, it would be income on your 2020 tax return that you will file next spring. However, if you use the standard deduction on your 2018 tax return, then the 2018 state tax refund will not be taxable in any case.

[fanfare]

if you did not itemize in 2018, your state refund can be completely ignored. Don't enter anything.