Shoot, I made a mistake on our taxes

[msjd123]

I forgot to deduct our union dues, which come to $1300 a year for both DH and I. The weird thing is, though, that I went back into TurboTax and added it in just to see how much of a difference it would make and if it was worth filing an amended return, and it didn't do a thing! It didn't even add a single stinkin' dollar to our refund! How is that possible? Granted, we already have a lot of deductions because of the house, the HELOC, DH's student loan, charitable contributions, tuition, daycare, and other work-expenses (whew, that is a lot!) but how can that be that another $1300 deducted doesn't change our refund at all?

I'm not complaining, really, I just find it odd. Does anyone know enough about taxes to venture a guess?

[MaddieMay]

Did you take the standard deduction or itemize? That might be one explanation.

[DevaMajka]

don't union dues go on the schedule A? And I believe that particular section that it goes on, you can only deduct anything that exceeds a certain percentage of your income (7% maybe?).
So if you had a relatively high income, it might not have even calculated out to giving you a higher deduction, in which case it wouldn't affect your taxable income or your refund.

eta- if it is 7% then you'd have to have made less than $20k for $1300 to even calculate out. I think. I could be braindead though. lol
(My grandma is an income tax accountant, and I help her out every year. But I only enter the numbers- she does all the work and knows all the rules. lol)

[msjd123]

Oh yes, we itemize; otherwise it wouldn't matter at all.

Deva33mommy, that makes sense. I had a feeling it might be something along those lines. It just seemed like every other deduction make the refund numbers go up that I was surprised. Oh well!