Is my total refund received in 2020 my 2019 tax return with the total of all payments and withholding

[whitewolffe8]

Help please

[KrisD15]

Where are you being asked this? 

Is the software asking about your STATE refund you received in 2020?

[whitewolffe8]

No it’s just asking me that and to fill in that information 

[KrisD15]

No, it is the amount they sent back to you as a tax refund. 

So when you filed your 2019 tax return, you did that in 2020 and if you received a refund, you should have gotten that refund in 2020. 

It is what you were sent back as a refund, or what they sent as a direct deposit. 

[user82936234]

Hi there, I have the same question as the thread starter. I think he/she has the same question as I do, as it seems a bit strange. 

After completing the questions for the 1099-MISC section in the Wages & Income, the next screen will ask about State and local tax refunds. I've been using Turbotax for a while and don't recall being asked this or it being presented in this way before. What's strange, is that it has some numbers in there already, which I assume it's pulling from the imported 2019 tax return data from Turbo tax. However, the numbers are not correct.

There are two fields on this page, "Total Refund Received in 2020" and "Total of all your payments and withholding". 

If I look at my 2019 state tax return, the "total of all your payments" number matches the number in my 2019 return. However, "the total refund Received in 2020" field does not match. It's off by a few thousand dollars. I'm confused where Turbotax even got this number from. 

What should I do, adjust it to the refunded amount received from my 2019 tax return, leave it as-is, or delete it. Honestly, I don't even understand why this question is being asked on the 2020 tax return, what is the purpose of it?

[bhergn]

I got the same question but I think I found the answer to your question. From my calculation, the amount refunded to you minus the EITC will give you that amount.

[AbrahamT]

Total refund received received may income not only state and local tax refunds but also refunds from the earned income credit . Your state tax refund which appears on your 2019 however will not reflect the amount you received on Form 1099G,

the amount of your state taxes overpaid. That amount will be included part of your total adjusted gross income in 2020. As far as why you never so this screen before in prior years, note that you only get taxed on state tax refund  if you itemized

the year before in 2019. It's very likely that in prior years you either didn't overpay on your state tax liability and/or you didn't itemize in the prior year like 2018.