Proactive Information wold help!

[pmhaft]

It sure would be helpful and provide efficiencies if Turbo Tax would state what the medical, charitable donation amounts, property taxes, mortgage interest thresholds are -- before you go through the tedious exercise of detailing all of them -- only to get the statement -- "standard deduction is still your best options".

Gosh -- if I knew the threshold to meet before going through the details of collection and reporting, I wold have saved an hour+.

Peter 

[xmasbaby0]

Well, maybe now you know some of them.  

If you want to skip entering your itemized deductions you can do that.  Many people will not have enough itemized deductions this year to itemize, and will just be getting their federal  standard deduction.  The thing is, though, that some of those deductions could make a difference on a state return even if they do not affect your federal return.  Information flows from your federal return to your state return, so it might not be a bad idea to go ahead and enter them anyhow.  It cannot hurt you.

The following states allow you to itemize deductions on just the state return: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, and Wisconsin 

Your itemized deductions have to be more than your standard deduction before you will see a change in your tax owed or tax refund.  The deductions you enter do not necessarily count “dollar for dollar;” many of them are subject to meeting  tough thresholds—medical expenses, for example, must meet a threshold that is pretty hard to reach. (Only the amount that is MORE than 7.5% of your AGI counts)   The software program uses all the IRS rules that apply to the expenses you enter, and it tells you if you have enough to use your itemized deductions or if using the standard deduction is more advantageous for you.  Under the tax laws that have been in effect since 2018, some deductions have been capped—there is a $10,000 limit to the itemized deductions for state, local, property and sales taxes.

The standard deduction makes some of your income “tax free.”  It is not a refund.  You will see your standard or itemized deduction amount on line 12 of your 2024 Form 1040.

2024 STANDARD DEDUCTION AMOUNTS

SINGLE $14,600    (65 or older/legally blind + $1950)

MARRIED FILING SEPARATELY            $14,600    (65 or older/legally blind + $1550)

MARRIED FILING JOINTLY $29,200    (65 or older/legally blind + $1550)

HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD $21,900    (65 or older/legally blind + $1950)

[gvcoj1ms]

To add to the list xmasbaby0 gave, Colorado allows Charitable Contributions to be taken on the State tax even when you claim Standard Deduction on Federal return. So it's worth entering if you are filing state return in CO.