The other thing that some people don't realize, is that if you are already in the itemized deduction territory, and if your prior-entered deductions have already reduced your taxable income to a zero, adding a billion $$ of charity donations would not change do anything... and may be getting all your prior Federal withholding back already.
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Probably not your situation...but maybe. We've had similar complaints for a few people who entered their donations first...well yeah ! You need to get ALL your income in first if you want to make reasonable sense about whether your deductions are helping or not. IT still works out doing it either way, but making sense of the refund meter only works if all your income has been entered first.
____________*Answers are correct to the best of my knowledge when posted, but should not be considered to be legal or official tax advice.*
