State estimated taxes not being included in itemized deduction calculation

[Rick7897]

This seems to be a known problem, but it's getting close to 4/15 so hopefully there is a workaround . . .

My 2025 state estimated tax payments (and, yes, I am not including those payments made in January of 2026 for this discussion) are not being included in itemized deductions (if they were, I would be using itemized instead of the standard deduction). I am using the online version of TurboTax.

Help! 

[SteamTrain]

@Rick7897 

I don't see that missing in my Online test file.

Bumping my state payments up and down by $500, also bumps my fed taxes owed down & up .too.

Couple things to check.....

1) Edit those payments on the Deductions&Credits page....make sure you've selected the state properly...and that the year you put for each is 2025 and not 2026.  (the effect isn't triggered until you "Continue" out of the page where you enter those payments.)

2) go to the bottom of the Deductions&Credits page and hit "Continue" and step thru the pages that follow until you get to a page that shows your STD DED vs Itemized values....& which TTX is planning on using.  Maybe your Std Ded is larger than you realized.

3)  Write down the Itemized Ded $$ amount form step 2 above...then go back to the State Estimated taxes section and bump one of the payments up by $2000 (temporarily) then work your way back to the Std vs Itemized display shown in #2, to see if itemized jumped up by 2k too.

Only other things I can think of is a)   remember....Only your out-of-pocked Med expenses greater than 7.5% of your AGI are included in the "itemized" total...and b)  The state & local taxes & Property taxes paid deduction is limited to 40,000...and is reduced for really high income individuals/couples.

[Rick7897]

Thanks for attempting to help. . .

State, Year, payments and payment dates all entered correctly.

Bumping est. tax by $500 in the state estimated tax section changes the total by the correct amount

But, in the "sales tax deduction" section the state and local tax amount is much higher than the sales tax number (correctly), but when choosing to use either the larger of (or the specific) sales tax or state and local tax for purposes of itemized vs. standard deduction, it always defaults to the lower sales tax and results in the standard deduction--when using the state and local tax number would clearly result in itemizing.

[SteamTrain]

@Rick7897 

OK...here's a fix.  (possible fix?)

If you are using the Desktop version of the software.

1) open your tax return and switch to Forms Mode

2)  look in the left window and click on and open the "Tax & Int Wks"

3)  at the bottom of the rt window, with that worksheet open, click on the "Delete Form" button.   and Yes, you want to delete it.

4)  That deletes all the sales tax info and regenerates the worksheet without any Sales Taxes....leaving "itemized" as the only deduction type remaining

....and just don't go thru the Sales Tax deduction area again.   (or, you can revisit the Sales Tax menu section again if you decide later that you really want  to use the Sales Tax deduction instead)

Run the Review and Error checks to make sure all is Ok now.

And double-check or open the Sched A to see if the Itemized deductions are now using State & local taxes instead.

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[Rick7897]

Thank you!