I worked from home for a significant portion of the year, but continued to pay Detroit City taxes. Can I submit a days not worked in city exemption through TurboTax?

[Bonelli]

My employer provides a signed form certifying the days I did not work in the city. I am told I can submit this form with my city taxes to be refunded the city tax collected days I was working elsewhere.

[ErnieS0]

You can allocate days worked outside of The Motor City on the Detroit City Income Tax Return.

Go to the Detroit City section in Michigan.

• Find the screen Detroit Wages, click Edit next to your W-2
• On Detroit Wage Adjustment, select Working Days Allocation
• On Allocation of Detroit Wages, enter Total Vacation, Holidays, Sick Days, and Other Days not Worked and Total Days Worked in Detroit
• Enter your explanation

[matttremmel]

I have the same situation listed in the question above.  I cannot find the screens that you mention.  I tried going through the forms view and the screen prompts in the Michigan State section.  Can you provide more detail on where to go please?

Thanks, Matt

[ErnieS0]

Check your W-2. Boxes 18-20 should have entries and Box 20 should say either Detroit (online) or MI-DET (CD\Desktop)

On the screen Which Cities Did You Live or Work In? make sure I need a Detroit City Return is checked. Then select the appropriate return (resident, part-year, or nonresident)

Keep going through Michigan until you reach Live or Work in Any of These Cities? Detroit should be checked. Continue.

On What was your Detroit residency during 2020? the appropriate return should be checked (resident, part-year or nonresident)

The next screen should be Detroit Wages. Click Edit for the adjustment screen.

[MotorCityMama]

I have the same situation. I used Working Days Allocation to enter the total number of days worked in Detroit and the total number of days worked outside of Detroit. It did not change the taxable wages. Why isn't it working?

[LenaH]

Wages earned as a non-resident while working from a location outside the City of Detroit are not taxable to Detroit. You have to file a part-year return for Detroit and indicate the dates you earned wages inside of the city. 

If Detroit taxes were taken out of your paycheck the entire year, you will get a refund of the local tax paid while you were not working in Detroit.

Please follow the steps below to file a part-year Detroit return:

1. Click on State.
2. Click Continue next to Michigan.
3. On the screen Which Cities Did you Live or Work In? Click Detroit.
4. Click that you need a Detroit Part-year resident return. 
5. Continue through your return.
6. Enter the dates you worked in Detroit on the screen Detroit Residency. 

@MotorCityMama

[MotorCityMama]

I was not a resident of Detroit at any point in 2020, so that doesn't make any sense.

I asked TurboTax before I started if it would adjust my income for city taxes because I've never been able to do it before, and was told that it was an implemented feature this year.  I will never again use TurboTax if I just wasted hours inputting my information and it can't file my Detroit city tax return correctly.

[LenaH]

Although you were not a city resident, you will have to file a nonresident return for Detroit for part-year work while working in the city limits. As stated in the instructions above (#3), TurboTax will ask you what city you lived or worked in. It will file the correct form (Form 5119), as your Michigan residency status under General Info will be for an area outside of Detroit. 

@MotorCityMama

[testah2]

It don't work , Detroit city tax will not allocate days worked , not worked, same thing for 14 other people I work with say it do'nt work. If you work 1 day and set days worked in Detroit as one , not worked as 259 days , you get the same refund no matter what you worked.  Ttax needs to fix this and stop blaming as end user error.

[MotorCityMama]

I figured it out. It’s not set up clearly. 

The middle box is only vacation, sick and holiday days, not days you worked from home. 

The total in boxes 2 and 3 does not have to equal the total in box 1. 

[testah2]

Thanks That Helped ,  On a joint return, The error comes from when only filing one city return, Taxpayer or Spouse make sure you only populate the one who is doing the city return, leave one of them blank, do not make a selection or populate both Taxpayer and spouse unless you both worked in same city , my case (Detroit).

I selected Non resident, 260 days / 30 days sick Vaca, not worked.  Then the total days I worked in Detroit.

Thanks again.

[DML6]

@MotorCityMama thank you!  I had trouble just getting to the city return. I needed to check the box that said "I don't need a state return, take me to my city return."   The wording for this box should be changed.

[smkh]

Yes!  Thank you so much!  I've lost hours today trying to figure this out.  This solved it.