Why does my federal return change when I move on to the state return?

[mikeelbert]

I have gone through my federal returns multiple times and should get a return. When I continue to the state returns the federal return changes to taxes due amount. Why is this?

[BillM223]

As you know, we in the Community cannot see your private tax data. There is no easy-to-identify reason why this should happen, but there are so many variables involved, we can't say that this is the wrong result, either.

So two comments:

1. Don't watch the Refund Meter too closely. Things are happening in the background all the time which makes it seem like a deduction increases your tax - this is because things are being done out-of-sequence (but with good reason) by TurboTax. It's only the final result that makes a difference. How much tax you "owed" halfway through really doesn't have any meaning.

2. If you had TurboTax Live where you could share your tax data with a TurboTax credentialed tax professional, the first thing they would do is print off a copy of your federal return without the state, then a copy of the federal return with the state, and then compare the two forms lines by line until the difference was identified.

I encourage you to do this for yourself.

[mikeelbert]

Thank you for your response.

Just to follow up with the solution to my problem:

Box 12 information had 2 values. One coded as a W with a small amount. The other coded as a DD with a large amount. 

Information was entered correctly during the initial entry. When I clicked to continue to the State taxes these values would get swapped. I repeated the process multiple times to verify. I was able to change it back under the review process at the end and receive the proper refund.