<p>I posted this in Parents Forum to warn others, but now I'm posting here for help.</p>
<p>Turbotax does a terrible job of optimizing between tuition deduction and credits. I know for a fact that taking the deduction on a return I'm doing is more beneficial than the Lifetime Learning credit because the deduction can be taken on the State return. But Turbo tax takes the credit.</p>
<p>So does anybody know how I can MAKE it take the deduction instead?</p>
<p>If you go to the little icon for “Forms” you can go directly to the form itself and override what TurboTax has entered. (I’m referring to the desktop version. Not sure about the web version.)</p>
<p>I would have to override to delete the credit, and then override to take the deduction. If I override the deduction, does that flow through to the State return?</p>
<p>I guess what I really want to know, is where to I get Turbo Tax to rerun the optimization? What I’m thinking is that it decides that the credit gives a bigger refund and THEN it does the state. Nowhere does it optimize AFTER having done the state.</p>
<p>Ah… I see. Yeah, I don’t know. I actually used TurboTax for my federal return but not for my state return for a very similar reason. I had to do that last year too. I just did the state tax return by hand.</p>
<p>If I recall I learned that last year after I already paid extra for the state program. This year I just didn’t buy that feature and did it myself. </p>
<p>Also, I noticed last year that my tax prep software (I used TaxCut last year) did not allow my son to subtract his taxable scholarship amount from his AGI for his state taxes. The federal gov’t taxes that money, but our particular state does not. That information is in the state instructions booklet, but the tax prep software wasn’t up-to-speed there.</p>
<p>I am so mad at the state edition that I plan to contact them to get my extra $10 back! We donated a car this past year. The state return asked if we had donated a car. I answered yes. Turbotax then asked if we’d donated to one of several programs that would have allowed us to take a state deduction. We did not donate to one of those programs. Turbotax said we can’t take the deduction. However, it absolutely refuses to allow me to remove the $100 deduction for the car that it put on the return. So I will do my return by hand, anyway.</p>
<p>I did do the tuition credit stuff by hand to see what was most beneficial & found that Turbotax had done that part correctly. I hadn’t been convinced so had to run the numbers myself to be certain.</p>
<p>Not only that, but efiling the Federal is free. Efiling the state costs $22. Or about that.</p>
<p>I’ve given up on Turbotax for just these kinds of reasons. I’m back to doing it all by hand so that I can run the various scenarios. </p>
<p>Then again, I don’t save all that much, and it’s a couple hours of work, so how much am I really paying myself? Maybe I should just let TT do it after all?</p>
<p>Besides the fact that the savings CAN be considerable, there’s also the fact that you want to do it right. I know taxes really well, and it’s hard to get Turbo tax to do it right.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting everybody, I just finished my Fed & State on TT and remembered seeing something here. I took the T&F deduction last year, but TT wants me to do the new Am Opp credit this year. I’m thinking I’ll have to run the numbers myself to see which is optimal, sheesh. </p>
<p>I think next year I’ll opt for the basic version w/o state returns too.</p>
<p>I’m having trouble keeping up with you techies. :)</p>
<p>But, fwiw, an e-mail to Intuit is in order. A long time ago, I e-mailed them about an issue dealing with stock holdings (and purchase date reporting), and they fixed/corrected it.</p>
<p>I emailed Intuit, I went on their forum and posted the question, and even went to their “expert” forum. Nothing.</p>
<p>TT says they offer the “highest return guarantee” or something like that.
I would contact them, not just the forum.</p>
<p>I paid college tuition for 2 students totaling over $22,000. Turbo tax only lets me take a American Opportunity credit for my son who was a sophmore. I thought you needed to be a junior or senior to take this credit. It will not let me take ANY credit for my daughter who was a senior. It looks to me like we should qualify for the American Opportunity Credit for her. I also couldn’t figure out how to over ride. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>The American Opp. Credit isn’t limited to certain class levels. (The student has to be undergrad, of course.)</p>
<p>Not sure why Turbo Tax isn’t allowing the credit for your older D.</p>
<p>TT gave us the American Opp. Credit and that seemed to be the best. If you can run the numbers for both, that would be helpful, but for us, I know it was correct.</p>
<p>Thanks for bringing this up. My state taxes were very high this year and probably due to taking the credit as opposed to the deduction. I did them ASAP for financial aid purposes. I’ll go run the numbers again to prepare for next year. i don’t plan on revising them again as I did that last year due to a TT mistake in calculating HSAs, and it was a huge hassle. </p>
<p>Thanks for the heads up.</p>
<p>
It could be in some box you checked or some question you answered. If both kids were full time undergraduate students, then it should give you the credit on both. Assuming, you meet the income requirements.</p>
<p>I think I am going to use Taxact- I used the free version for D2 last year- TurboTax is being a PITB</p>
<p>Am I the last person on earth who does their taxes by hand? I can make any number appear in its proper box, in alot less time than it takes to wrestle software to the ground.</p>