Question

Tax year 2022 - how can I use federal standard deductions and itemize for State (Montana)?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
February 24, 2023
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Montana allows you to claim a different deduction than what you used on your federal return, so you can itemize state deductions if you claimed the federal standard deduction.

In the Montana section, you will see a screen called "Itemized Deductions." Tap Yes to Do you want to itemize deductions on your 2022 Montana return?

When you and your spouse file, you must both use the standard deduction or itemize deductions. You cannot use two different methods. If one spouse itemizes, the other must itemize as well.

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M

MiguelSAuthor

Hi,

yes, this helped. I expected to be able to itemize my state return irrespective of the federal deduction method, and since they change the Federal standard to 25,900 we've split the method. I haven't used TurboTax in ~7 years and the language presented by TurboTax for "Montana Itemized Deductions MFSC" states: "To itemize deductions on your Montana return, you must go back to your federal return and enter your federal itemized deductions there. Then, return here to allocate your deductions between you and your spouse."

That made me question how it was going to be handled if I needed to itemize our federal return. Selected continue, the federal deductions were there for parsing and our standard deduction held for our 1040.

Thanks for reassuring me that one could use different methods between federal and state.

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ErnieS0

Yes. The language on the TurboTax help screen is a bit convoluted. It means to enter all your itemized deductions first in federal, otherwise, TurboTax will probably give you the Montana standard deduction.

Many taxpayers who claim the federal standard deduction just skip over Deductions & Credits because they know it won’t help them on federal.

Some state programs allow you to enter itemized deductions in the state section. Montana is not one of those. It automatically gives you the larger of the two, hence the reminder.

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