How do I go from the standard deduction to the itemized deduction, or vice-versa?

TurboTax maximizes your refund by automatically selecting the federal deduction – standard or itemized – that lets you keep more of your hard-earned money.

However, you can manually override this selection if you wish. For example, if TurboTax determines that the standard deduction is slightly more advantageous on your federal return, but your state refund is greatly increased by choosing the itemized deduction, you can override the automatic selection in TurboTax.

It's a little hard to find, but we'll show you how to do this in the next section.

1. Open your return in TurboTax.
2. Click Federal Taxes (or Personal in the Home & Business version), and then choose Deductions & Credits.
3. Select Explore on My Own.
4. Scroll down to the very bottom of the Your 2012 Deductions & Credits screen and click the Done with Deductions button.
5. On the next screen, click Continue after the graph finishes loading.
6. You may be asked several more questions about your return, to ensure you're getting every deduction and credit you deserve.
7. Eventually, you'll get to the Here are Your 2012 Deductions and Credits screen, which lists these items. At the bottom of that screen, click Continue.
8. The next screen will be The _______ Deduction is Right for You! (Standard or Itemized will appear instead of a blank.) Here you can select the Change my deduction checkbox. You will then be able to choose the other deduction.
9. Click Continue to save your changes.