Itemized deductions - entry of real estate taxes

[Anonymous]

I am new to Lacerte and amending 2018 because of exceeding the $10,000 SALT limitation. My client owned 4 residences during 2018 (not held for investment, just personal residences). Within the Itemized Deductions screen I originally entered, as instructed, the real estate tax paid on his principal residence in the Real Estate Tax section in the box labeled "Principal residence [A] (Cntrl + E)". Since there was no line for real estate taxes on other residences I originally placed them under the Other Taxes section. I now realize that this was a mistake because the program correctly does not assume that taxes in this section are subject to the SALT limitation, and hence deducted in full the taxes I entered for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th residences.  Now that I am amending, where do I enter the real estate taxes for other than the principal residence? Is the label for this box a misnomer? Do I enter the real estate taxes for all 4 residences in this box and ignore Lacerte's labeling of it as if reserved for only the "principal" residence?

[George4Tacks · Accepted solution]

The hint is contained in "Principal residence [A] (Ctrl + E)" Use Ctrl + E and a grid will open up where you can enter any number of Residential Property taxes 

New York           2,354

Syracuse                736

Adirondack       1,716

Pokipsky             8.719

AND it will total them for you!

[Anonymous]

Thank you for clarifying this. Sounds like Lacerte's mis-labeling of that box causes you no grief. Likely there's tons more throughout Lacerte that you've long acclimated to, so I'll need to be on the lookout as I work more with this program for confusing, insufficient and misleading labeling. Gee, you'd think that Lacerte would simply change that line to, like you said, "Residential property taxes" instead of "Principal residence". 

[Ruthtax]

Illinois gives you a state tax credit for IL property taxes paid on a principal residence. An IL client also has a second home in WI. If I enter both taxes under “principal” as you suggest, IL will give a credit for the total amount. I tried entering under separate state codes in the grid (using Ctl+E) but it added to the IL credit incorrectly. How do I fix this?

[StknCPA]

Two years later I would like to add, I also have long had an issue with this being mislabeled as Principal Residence. Beyond here, it also comes out listing the interest as under principal residence on next year's organizer. To me, that's not so good.

Or is there another place to put it? I also note that this input line has an [A] here which, in Lacerte, frequently means this line is an adjustment. Is there another place to break out the entry of property taxes?

Or is this [A] only here because it is not entered as office in the home, for example.

[joshuabarksatlcs]

RE: Since there was no line for real estate taxes on other residences I originally placed them under the Other Taxes section. 

Under Real Estate Taxes, there are two boxes

    Principal residence [A] (Ctrl + E)

    Property held for investment

The [A] means what you enter here ADDs to info entered somewhere else (e.g. home office allocated to Sch A)

Ctrl E works on both boxes, and when you click on the big box, the document thingie pops in the small box next to it and clicking it would have the same effect as Ctrl-E that is bringing up the window for entering details.  This is fairly standard in Lacerte.

[StknCPA]

Mountain out of a molehill:

Yes to all of that, but that is not the point of OP or me.

The point is that the line is mislabeled. Real estate taxes paid on real estate that is not your primary residence (for example, a second or third home) and is not income/investment is not "primary residence," which is what the line says.

Yes, the tax return will be correct after putting all of this interest on the line that says primary residence. Yes, you can use the standard Lacerte detail entry (Ctrl-E or double-click), but they are still under primary residence. For prep, I've gotten used to it. What bothers me is next year's organizer.

On next year's organizer, the real estate taxes show up under a line that also says primary residence. I have clients that felt obligated to explain that the taxes were not for their primary residence. So, I tell them that I am an excellent tax preparer using an excellent program so there is no reason to worry about it...