Sales tax amount? IRS calculator?

Question

When doing my federal return at freetaxusa.com, one question is simply "Enter the total amount of sales tax you paid during 2023" and I don't know what to put here. Everything I read says to use the IRS Sales Tax Deduction Calculator.

https://apps.irs.gov/app/stdc/

The calculator asks if I bought a house in 2023. We did, so when I select house, it says "Enter taxes paid" for that house. What all taxes is  that referring to,  and how do you find them?

The IRS calculator also asks for all the residence counties lived at in 2023. I lived at one, and my now wife lived at another, and got married in 2023 we now live in another one, but the calculator only allows for one person, as it asks for the date periods and doesn't let you put more than one residence for a date.

The calculator also mentions home renovations. If I had someone else do the work, do I put that here or not?

kimyoun43 · Answer

When using the IRS Sales Tax Deduction Calculator for your 2023 federal return on FreeTaxUSA, you should enter the total sales tax you paid during the year, not property tax. When it asks for “taxes paid” related to buying a house, it’s referring to the sales tax on major purchases tied to the home, such as construction materials or appliances, not your mortgage or property tax. If you and your spouse lived in different counties before getting married, the calculator doesn't support multiple residences at once, so you'll need to run it separately for each person and combine the results manually. For home renovations, you can include the sales tax on materials, whether you bought them yourself or if the contractor included them in the bill (as long as sales tax was paid and passed on to you). Always keep receipts or detailed records to support your entry if needed.

CoryF · Answer

Thank you for this feedback.

If you bought a home already made, it is likely you would not have paid Sales tax on the purchase. However, it is possible that a Sales tax could have been part of the Purchase and would be found in the Closing Costs in your Settlement paperwork. The multiple states don't all have the same taxes and laws in the case of Sales Taxes charged on home buying. So, the IRS calculator is asking for more information to be accurate.

Since TN does not impose a State Income tax, they would likely have a State Sales Tax.

Also, the Renovators would have paid sales taxes on the materials that were purchased, but in this case, they would have the Sales Taxes paid amount for their tax return.

The instructions to Itemized Deductions has examples of living in different localities in the same state. You can look at page A-6 for examples to follow for your separate living before getting married in 2023.

Jack · Answer

Thank you but that didn't answer my questions.