Turbo Tax State Itemized Deuctions

Ken - you might also pose this question on "misc.taxes.moderated"? True, this Q forum is a better forum perhaps for TT operational questions, but in fact, your question could be asked just an easy if you did a paper return and ended up with the same results..

FWIW, obviously each state is different, but in NY, if you itemized your Federal, you still can take a STANDARD NY deduction if it's better for you than Itemized NY State (in my case, it is.). (Disclaimer - This statement is not advice to anyone in particular! I'm not a tax pro) So it's not neccessarily wrong on TT's part if Arizona is like NY.

Whoops - I reread your OP post - sorry. I thought you said things 180 degrees backwards from what you said . NY requires you to use STANDARD deduction if you took STANDARD Federal. So if this happened in NY, I believe you're right, TT goofed. But maybe AZ is different.

Thanks, Andrew. Is there a TT phone number I can call to ask about this?

There is also a TTax forum which appears to have Intuit personnel monitoring.

Just started monitoring so don't know how good it is but might be useful to post there also.

Thanks. I'll try that.

I've been away and missed this when you first asked the question, but in case you haven't received a complete answer yet, I'll add my 2¢......

TTAx wasnt wrong in using the itemized deduction for AZ return. TTax determined that the STD Fed deduction was >> than sum of allowable itemized deductions, but for AZ the ITEMIZED deductions are >> than Std AZ deduction. This is mainly due to fact that AZ allows ALL medical expenses and doesn't limit medical expenses to only those that exceed the 7.5% AGI factor.

And there IS a Schedule A prepared by TTax for the Fed return; it just isnt printed out if the STD deduction is used for Fed return. If you go to "Open A Form" icon on TTax, select "Show My Return". you'll find the Schedule A form all filled out. Just print out a copy of that to attach to your AZ return.

If you e-file for AZ, TTax may automatically include the Fed Sched A form in what it sends to AZ; I don't know how TTax handles that aspect.

Hope this helps.

Great--thanks very much. So Arizona will accept a "pro-forma" Schedule A, even though it wasn't actually filed with my Federal return?

Yes.

Last year (2004 Tax year) was the first year that I did not itemize on my Federal return, but I could itemize on AZ return. My Fed itemized deductions totaled about $9000, which was less than out standard deduction for MFJ and over 65 yrs old. Applying the 7.5% of AGI limitation to medical expenses wiped out about $4500 of medical expenses (Medicare and medical insurance premiums, mostly.) But AZ allowed ALL medical expenses, so I could add that $4500 to the other $9000 of itemized expenses. This was all reflected on the AZ Schedule A. You send AZ a copy of the (unsubmitted) Federal Schedule A just to show that the difference was in the medical expense area. As I recall, there is nowhere on the AZ return where you tell AZ that you itemized on Fed return or took std deduction on Fed return.

Glad I could help.

Thanks again, Jerry.