Got married in 2018. Wife filed 2017 late and has not received her refund yet. She also didn't file any 2017 state taxes because it was only a $50 return and it wasn't worth her effort (according to her).

I have always itemized, but do to the increased standard deduction and her lack of deductions it doesn't seem to make sense for us to file itemized since we don't have over $24,000 in deductions combined.

Question, since she didn't file any state 2017 taxes, do we/she need to do that prior to 2018 taxes? Is there any reason for us not to just do a 1040 with no schedule A and take the $24,000 std deduction if we don't have $24,000 to itemize?

Skins -

I'm not a tax pro but have filed a lot of them and made mistakes and had have to correct, re-file, etc.

1. I'd find out what's going on with Fed refund for 2017. Should have received either a refund or letter by now. She will have to call them. You can be right there or on the line and she can authorize them to talk to you if needed.

2. If wife's 2017 VA adjusted gross income was $11,950 or more, she was required to file, regardless if resident, part-year resident, or non-resident. If she was required to file and didn't, she should have received a "non-filer" notice from VA for 2017.

3. Go to the Virginia tax website and look at the 2017 forms and instructions. If you think she was required to file, start researching VA's late filing rules and do what they say.

4. No reason at all to do Schedule A if you can't come up with more than $24k in itemized deductions.

I prefer to do my taxes by hand so I know exactly what is going on. Could not do 2018 by hand because either the Federal instructions are wrong or I am missing something. Form/Worksheet A required a number from Form/Worksheet B, but to calculate the number in B you needed the number from A. So, I used the free online Credit Karma system, and filed. Today realized I didn't do Health Savings Account form. Filing the form would not change my taxes, and I googled the IRS and they say don't worry about it.

Hope you get it straightened out.

PS: Lived in Virginia for 37 years.

On the 2017, if you are more than about six weeks out from the filing, I'd call IRS and check on it. Or, you can go to the "Where's me refund" link on the IRS website and check status. I would do that before trying to call them. If you call, recommend calling first thing in the morning as the wait times are typically less.

On the 2018, only reason to gather up the itemized details if you plan to use the standard deduction would be if your State is "decoupled" from the Feds and allows you to itemize on the State while using the Standard deduction on Fed. In that case, you might have enough itemized to benefit you on the State while still taking the larger standard deduction on Federal. Best of both worlds.