Question

Charitable Contributions for Non-Itemizers - Tax Year 2021

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
December 23, 2021
3 replies
0 views

TurboTax Deluxe 2021 does not apply the $300/$600 max cash charitable contribution for non-itemizers. The CARES Act specifies that you can take a $300 ($600 joint returns) charitable contribution even if you are using the Standard Deduction. Please fix the software to allow for this exception.

DoninGA

Employee

The TurboTax software for tax year 2021 has been updated for the $600 charitable contribution when filing a joint tax return and using the Standard Deduction.

Update your software -

Click on Online at the top of the desktop program screen

Click on Check for Updates

D

doug_wAuthor

My software shows that it is up to date. On the Federal Review tab, it shows the following:

Donations to Charity - You Entered $600, You're Allowed $0. Then a link "Why the Difference?"

rjs

Employee

If you click the "Why the Difference?" link, what does it say?

Are you sure you are not getting itemized deductions?

A

agoeth

Why is the 1040 form not correctly inputting the 600.00 for married filing joint return and using the standard deductions? Can override the number but still does not calculate.

A

agoeth

The software updated just now and still has 300.00 instead of 600.00.

V

Vanessa A

Log into your account and go back through the credits and deductions section. Walk all the way through, hitting continue. When you get to the final review section you will see the amount due decrease or the refund amount possibly increase. You can also see the updated amount using forms mode in TurboTax Desktop or if you are using TurboTax online by clicking the following:

Tax Tools
Tools
View Tax Summary
Preview My 1040
Scroll down to line 12 box b and you should see it says $600

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M

Murray1986

Today is 02/12/2022.

Like several others, the $600 initially looks to me like it applies correctly after input of deductions, then determining that the standard deduction is what we are going to get.

The issue we see is that as soon as I run the Federal Review in TurboTax, we get an error message on that line 12b, and it gets changed back to $300.

If I change it manually back to $600, the Federal Review step changes it to $300 every time.

When is this going to be fixed? I am ready to file now, but it seems that this issue has somehow been around since at least December. I can't get through the Federal Review step without the issue popping back up.

rjs

Employee

@Murray1986 wrote:

When is this going to be fixed?

@Murray1986 The latest word from TurboTax is that they are not going to fix it. The solution is to enter $600 when you get the error in the federal review, then do not repeat the federal review. Or if you do repeat the federal review, change it back to $600 again. See the following FAQ.

Why am I getting an error message after entering charitable cash donations when claiming the Standard Deduction?