I don't know if anyone here knows Maryland tax law.
In my situation, the proposed legislation results in me having itemized deductions slightly less than the new standard deduction.
In Maryland when completing a return, under their current law, they require that if you take the Federal standard deduction, you must take the Maryland standard deduction, which is only $4,000 compared to the almost $24,000 I'd be able to deduct on my Maryland return if I itemize on my Federal return.
Therefore, I think I'll be better off itemizing on the Federal return anyway, even though I deduct slightly less than $24,000, in order to deduct almost this amount from my Maryland return.
Now that state/local/property tax deduction is capped at $10,000, for the Maryland return, you have to subtract state/local tax withheld from your itemized deduction, but if state/local/property tax exceeds $10,000, and I deduct $10,000 on Federal, how would it be determined what the itemized Maryland deduction would be?
Also, the Maryland return suggests you need to claim the same number of personal exemptions as on the Federal return, but in 2018 those are eliminated from the Federal return. My guess is Maryland will continue to let us take personal exemptions.
I have written Maryland for guidance and am awaiting their feedback.
Thoughts?