Question

Schedule A Tax and Interest Deduction Worksheet

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
March 4, 2025
2 replies
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I lived in Colorado for all of 2024, from1/1/24 to 12/31/24. Depending upon where I buy something (town or county), I pay different tax rates. I want to deduct sales tax. In TurboTax, I created two different entries for the two different tax rates and entered the same Date Lived in State "From" and Date Lived in State "To" dates of 01/01/2024 - 12/31/24. TurboTax returns an error "Beginning date lived in state problem. The dates entered result in more than 366 days." The dates are correct. How do I get around this problem?

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BillM223

You may have to enter different dates, even if they don't correspond to reality. For example, one tax rate for 01/01/2024 to 06/30/2024, and the other tax rate for 07/01/2024 to 12/31/2024.

Then make up your own spreadsheet with the correct information and dates and rates. Save the spreadsheet with your tax records. That way, if any one ever asks (to me, this seems doubtful), you can whip out your spreadsheet and show it to them. And if they ask why, explain it was to get around a limitation of the tax software.

Remember that lying to TurboTax is not the same as lying to the IRS or the State of Colorado. You're just doing what you need to get it to work.

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S

SED-61Author

Thanks for that advice. I noticed that when I changed the date ranges for the two different tax rates as you suggested, the software changed the deduction allowed, even though the cost and sales tax data didn't change. Now, instead of the itemized sales tax deductions being more favorable, TurboTax is saying my state and local income tax deduction is more favorable. Why would this change?

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SED-61Author

I experimented with 2024 date ranges for the two different tax rates I pay when purchasing something from the town or county, since TurboTax won't let me enter the entire year saying it adds up to 366 days. It looks like the longer I say I lived in a higher-tax area, the more of a state refund I receive, even though the actual costs and sales tax I paid haven't changed. This problem leads to less of an overall deduction because I still have to say I lived in a lower-tax area for at least one day in 2024. Can you help with this?

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twerkema

I would like to report the same issue. 366 days. It was a leap year, so yes, 366 days is correct. I can change the dates, but clearly this is a bug that the programmers did not allow for leap years.