OK - that's why the program turfed me to the standard deduction. My charitable donations plus the lack of medical, etc didn't add up to enough to exceed the standard deduction since it doubled after 2018 I guess.
It would be helpful if the online program clearly said that my itemized deductions would not have exceeded the standard deduction... which is why it kept steering me to the Standard Deduction. It confusingly took me to line 10b in the 1040 form where my $5776 in charitable deductions had already been entered and said it needed correction. I think next time I won't bother trying to itemize.
This answer really helped and reminded me of what happened the last couple of years when I had a tax person preparing my returns for me.
Thank you.
