Hello @normang
I am an Intuit TurboTax Employee, so I need to take blame for any Intuit/TurboTax issues, as should any other employee, however I am not tasked with coding software. Like most agents in Community, I am a Tax Practitioner and I try to assist customers with tax issues.
With that said, when we see the software not behaving as we think it should, we work with the program to formulate a "work-around' so that those customers that want to file ASAP can get the correct tax result on their returns and file. while the programmers look at and correct the issue if needed.
This year the "Cash contributions for individuals who do not itemize deductions" was extended for use on the 2021 Tax Year Federal Return. Additionally the limit for when filing Married Filing Jointly was raised to $600.
It was reported that some customers were having trouble getting the $600 cash contribution to show on their 1040 and were getting an error message as well.
Along with other agents, I tested different scenarios in the different TurboTax programs to recreate the error and find a temporary solution. I do not have access to a MAC.
I found that if CASH donations were entered on the Federal return under Deductions & Credits (which would flow to schedule A if Itemizing) the program will trigger this error. If the cash donations were deleted, the program would ask about this "Cash contributions for individuals who do not itemize deductions" at the end of the review and a 600 entry would be accepted no longer leading to an error.
Some states, such as Minnesota, allow a Taxpayer to claim donations on the state return even when that same Taxpayer takes the Standard Deduction on the Federal return. In this case, in order to compensate for the "missing" (deleted) cash donations entered under "Deductions & Credits" on the Federal screens, I suggest entering the cash donations under "Items" rather than "cash" on the Federal Deduction & Credits screen. This does not cause the "Final Review" error for filing the Federal Return while also transferring the full amount of charitable donations to the State return.
Yes, you are correct when you say this is a work-around. The Programmers are aware of the issue and if you would feel better waiting, that would be fine.
The purpose of TurboTax is to get your numbers on your 1040 where they belong.
This work-around for the $600 "Cash contributions for individuals who do not itemize deductions" gets the numbers where they should be, but again, if this makes you uncomfortable you might want to wait for more updates.
Below is a TurboTax link on the subject:
TurboTax Help
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