Colorado: Refunds Received for State/Local Tax Returns

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
April 3, 2025
1 reply
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Hello.

Last year I got the Colorado refund that was bigger than what I see in the Box 2 of the Form 1099-G.

When I go to "Wages & Income"/"Refunds Received for State/Local Tax Returns", I see the question "State and Local Tax Refund Summary". Here I can fill in the "Colorado Total Refund Received in 2024". Even if it's not mentioned that the 1099-G value from the Box 2 should be used, 1099-G is mentioned twice on this page including "What if I didn't get a 1099-G?". When I click on "What if I didn't get a 1099-G?", it says

What if I didn't get a 1099-G?
Don't worry if you didn't get a 1099-G. Some states are going paperless and don't send forms. You can find the information you need about your state or local refund on:
- Last year's state tax return
- A notice from your state or locality
- Your bank statement showing a direct deposit of your entire state or local refund

which indirectly looks to me like I only should be using the actual CO refund amount deposited to me ONLY if I didn't get the 1099-G.

Also, I did the parallel tax preparation with H&R Block just to ensure the quality of preparation. In H&R Block has this same question worded like "Form 1099-g - Enter State and Local Income Tax Refunds" and the box where to fill it in is called "Refund amount (box 2)" which obviously refers to that of 1099-G. Also, it mentions "Your Form 1099-G box numbers might not match exactly".

So, when I used the Colorado refund amount from 1099-G, the federal and Colorado refunds were identical in TurboTax and H&R Block. When in TurboTax I tried the actual amount deposited to me, both state and federal refunds changed very significantly.

My question is: please confirm that in TurboTax, I need to use the value from the Box 2 of the form 1099-G even if TurboTax doesn't clearly state about 1099-G.

Thank you.

TurboTax Deluxe Online

BillM223

Yes, you use the Box 2 amount from the 1099-G because it is the actual state refund on the books of the state, whereas other amounts like what the state may or may not have deposited may or may not be the refund on their books.

The amount in Box 2 is what the state is expects.

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JimmyTaxPayerAuthor

Thank you.

Good that initially I did this correctly based on the identical tax return amounts with H&R Block.

This could be an advice to TurboTax to be more specific with this question as H&R Block is and directly state this amount should be coming from 1099-G.

Thank you for your help.