Amending my state tax return only - do I really need to amend federal too?

You absolutely can amend just your state return without amending your federal return. The TurboTax interface is designed with the assumption that most amendments affect both returns, which is why it's pushing you to do both. When there's no change to your federal information, filing an amended federal return is unnecessary and potentially confusing to the IRS. Since your federal return already correctly reported all your income, there's no reason to file Form 1040-X. For your state amendment, you have a couple options. You can either continue with TurboTax but simply not submit the federal amendment they generate, or you can go directly to your state's tax department website where many states offer free amendment forms you can fill out without being forced through the federal amendment process.

After spending weeks trying to fix some issues with my state taxes last year, I discovered https://taxr.ai which totally saved me. The site helped me confirm that I only needed to amend my state return when I was in a similar situation. Their tax document analyzer actually showed me exactly where TurboTax was getting confused and forcing the federal amendment that wasn't needed. Just upload your tax docs and their AI system analyzes everything and gives clear explanations about what you actually need to file. It even helped me find a few deductions I missed the first time around! Definitely less frustrating than trying to figure out TurboTax's weird requirements.

I just wanted to follow up about using taxr.ai that someone mentioned earlier. I was in the same boat with needing to amend just my state return and TurboTax insisting on a federal amendment too. I tried the website and uploaded my returns, and it immediately identified that I only needed a state amendment. What really impressed me was that it showed exactly where on my original state form the error was and generated a pre-filled amendment form that I could just print, sign and mail. Saved me hours of frustration! Best part was that it gave me documentation explaining why a federal amendment wasn't necessary in my case, which gave me peace of mind that I wasn't missing something. Definitely better than trying to decipher TurboTax's confusing prompts.

I had the EXACT same problem last year! Spent hours on hold with my state tax department and couldn't get through. Then a friend recommended https://claimyr.com and showed me this demo: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c They got me connected to a real person at my state's tax department in about 15 minutes when I'd been trying for days! The agent confirmed that I absolutely did NOT need to file a federal amendment if my error was only on the state return. She walked me through exactly how to file just the state amendment and what forms I needed. Honestly, it was worth it just to stop stressing about whether I was doing the right thing. Tax software is designed for the most common scenarios and sometimes forces you down paths that don't make sense for your specific situation.

I have to eat my words about that Claimyr service. After my skeptical comment, I was desperate enough to give it a try since I'd been trying to get through to my state tax office for over a week. It actually worked exactly as advertised. Got me through to a real person at the state tax department in about 20 minutes. The agent confirmed that I absolutely did NOT need to file a federal amendment for a state-only issue and even emailed me direct instructions for filing just the state amendment. Saved me hours of hold time and probably prevented me from filing an unnecessary federal amendment. Sometimes I hate being wrong, but in this case I'm glad I was!

I just went through this exact issue last month. TurboTax is super annoying about forcing you to do both amendments together. What I ended up doing was starting the amendment process in TurboTax, completing both federal and state (even though federal had no changes), but then ONLY submitting/paying for the state amendment. I just closed the browser after submitting the state part and never submitted the federal part. No issues at all with my state amendment being processed. It's been about 6 weeks and my state refund adjustment just came through without any problems.

Adding something important that nobody has mentioned yet: if your state tax amendment DOES result in a different state tax amount that you're paying/receiving, make sure you understand how that might affect next year's federal return. If you itemize deductions on your federal return and claim state income taxes paid, a change to your state tax liability this year could potentially affect next year's federal deductions. This isn't the same as amending this year's federal return, but it's something to keep in mind for your next filing.

THERE IS NO NEED TO AMEND YOUR FEDERAL! I work at a tax prep office and see this confusion all the time. TurboTax and other software make it difficult because they're designed for the most common scenario (where both returns need amending). Just call your state tax department directly or go to their website. Most states have a simple amendment form you can fill out without involving your federal return at all. Don't let TurboTax make you do unnecessary work! TT is just trying to charge you for another service you don't need. They make filing more complicated than it needs to be so they can justify their fees.

I just went through this exact same situation two weeks ago and can confirm what others are saying - you absolutely do NOT need to amend your federal return if there are no changes to it. I called the IRS directly (took forever to get through) and they explicitly told me that if my federal return correctly reported all income, there's no reason to file Form 1040-X. They said filing an unnecessary amendment could actually slow down processing and cause confusion. For my state amendment, I ended up bypassing TurboTax entirely and going straight to my state's tax website. Most states have their own amendment forms that are much simpler than dealing with tax software that assumes you need both. The whole process took about 30 minutes once I stopped fighting with TurboTax's interface. Save yourself the headache and just file the state amendment directly through your state's system. Your federal return is fine as-is!