Itemized deductions - not sure if calculating properly in FreeTaxUSA
Hi! For the 2025 tax year, I lived in Maryland and worked in Pennsylvania for the entire year. My wife was the same - we work for the same company, and we are filing married jointly. Each year I do the taxes in both Turbo Tax and FreeTaxUSA to see if I can get the numbers to match, then I file in FreeTAXUSA. Kind of just a way for me to verify I input everything correctly if I can get them both to match.
I'm noticing that Turbotax is giving me a slightly higher amount for my itemized deductions than FreeTaxUSA is giving, by about $144. This is making my refund in Turbotax about $31 higher.
After digging in, I noticed the only number that $144 could be, is Pennsylvania State Unemployment Insurance - about $77ish for me and around $66ish for my wife which add up to the $144. Which leads me to believe that TurboTax is adding the amount I paid for PA SUI to my itemized deduction total, and FreeTaxUSA is not, despite the amounts being recorded in my Wage/W-2 sections in both platforms.
So my question - should the PA SUI be contributing to my Itemized deduction amount, and if so, how do I ensure it is contributing to this total in FreeTaxUSA? From what I can tell everything else pretty much matches exactly in the itemized deduction section between the two systems, so this has to be it.
Thank you!
Answers
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Hello Ironman0723 - PA SUI is deductible for federal itemized tax deductions as State and Local Tax, or SALT. However, it is not entered until the itemized deductions section. Since PA SUI is listed on your W2, it will be under the Wages W2 section.
When you entered your W2, and entered PA SUI on box 14, then select Continue, and keep going through the Wages W2 section. One of the page will ask "if any SUI, or State Disability Insurance (SDI) or Family Leave Insurance (FLI) was withheld from your wages and is shown on your W-2, enter the amount."
You would answer Yes, and then enter the PA SUI amounts for you and your spouse, and the amounts will get deducted on Schedule A, itemized deductions.0 -
Hi John,
Thank you for your response. When I go through the wages section and include the PA SUI into Box 14, hit save and Continue, the following sections come up:
Did you earn any tips or Overtime from --- ? (Asks about any tip income or Overtime deductions, answers to both are No).
Did you make Maryland Retirement Pickup contributions? (This asks me if the PA SUI in Box 14 are Maryland Retirement Pickup Contributions, which they are not)
Then I am back to the overall Wages section. Your previous message first says that I should enter this during the Itemized deductions section, then later it says the Q will come up during the Wages section. Can you confirm where I should be seeing this?
Later, under Itemized Deductions, there is a section titled “Tell us about the taxes you paid in 2025”. This section carries over the State and Local Withholdings amount, as well as Sales Tax, Filing Payments and Estimated Payments, the system asks a few Qs about whether any previous years’ taxes were paid, and then has a section for Personal Property Tax and “Other deductible tax”. This other deductible tax section does not mention anything about PA SUI, but if I add the $144 into this amount, my totals end up the same as Turbo Tax’s totals.
So – should I be inputting this into Other Deductible Tax section and noting that it is for PA SUI, or is there an official section specifically for the PA SUI? And if there is, where do I find it?
Thank you!
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Hello Ironman0723,
Pennsylvania State Unemployment Insurance (PA SUI) withheld from your wages (often listed in Box 14 of the W-2) is considered a deductible state tax on your federal tax return, but it must be included as part of your itemized deductions on Schedule A. It is generally treated as a state or local tax (SALT).
Yes, input that in the Itemized section as Other Deductible Tax noting that it is for PA SUI.
You may want to contact Customer Support for additional help, so they can look at your return.0 -
Thank you, Matthew. If I opt to contact Customer Support, do I need to upgrade to paid support, and if so, which plan would I need for Customer Support to take a look at my return?
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You can contact support for free and you'll get an alert in an email that they've responded, but free support can take up to 24 hours to respond. But we're far enough from the tax deadline that should be fine. If you want live chat support, you do need to upgrade to deluxe.
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Ah great, thank you for that tip @toyotadriver !
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