To properly handle a tax refund from the prior year on your current tax return, especially when using tax software, here's how you can input it manually:

Understanding Line 26 of Form 1040: Line 26 is for reporting taxable refunds of state and local income taxes from the previous year. The refund is only taxable if you itemized deductions in the prior year and benefited from the deduction of state and local taxes.

Manual Entry of the Refund:

If the tax software does not automatically carry over the refund to Line 26, you need to manually input the amount.
Look for the section labeled "Other Income" or "State and Local Tax Refunds" in the income section of the software. This is usually where you would manually enter the taxable portion of the refund.
Steps for Manual Input:

Go to the "Income" section of your tax return.
Find "Taxable Refunds, Credits, or Offsets of State and Local Income Taxes" (this is the entry corresponding to Line 26).
Manually enter the refund amount that should be taxable.
Additional Guidance:

If the refund isn't showing up on the correct line after inputting on screen 7.1, double-check that it's marked as "taxable" and that the software recognizes it as income from the prior year.
Confirm that you are not overlooking any settings or checkboxes in your tax software that might affect how it flows through to the Form 1040.

If you need guidance specific to the tax software you're using, let me know which one it is, and I can provide more detailed instructions!