First, the question about a QCD (Qualified Charitable Distribution) is asked as part of the 1099-R interview, that is, after you enter your 1099-R AND if your distribution is from an IRA, then you may be asked the question about QCD.
Second, unless you are at least 70 1/2 (and therefore eligible to make a QCD), TurboTax won't even ask you the question, because you couldn't answer YES anyway.
This means that the question about a QCD is NOT to be found in the charitable contribution section for Schedule A.
When you transfer part of your IRA distribution to a charity as a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD), TurboTax will take your age into account and determine if you qualify to make a QCD. After you enter the information from your Form 1099-R which reports the distribution there will be some follow-up questions. One of those questions will be if the distribution was transferred to a qualified charitable organization. You can choose either all, part, or none of the distribution was transferred. This will take care of reporting the distribution correctly on your return.
Then, on your actual Form 1040, line 4a will include the amount of your distribution and line 4b will show any taxable amount ($0 if the entire distribution was transferred to the charitable organization) and the designation QCD will be shown on that line as well.
Use the following steps to get started entering your Form 1099-R that reports the distribution from your IRA:
BUT....note that if you turned exactly 70.5 at any date in 2020, there is a bug in the software that needs to be corrected first:
At this point, until there's an update, the bug is there. Definitely follow the fix link. I temporarily changes my birth year, got the correct questions re QCD and changed my birth date profile back later.
For several years, the instructions on entering QCD as late as July 2021 worked fine (for years before 2021). I have Turbotax for 2021 and there is no question about entering QCD. Do I have to pay a CPA this year for that one item?
It is very early. There will be many program updates. And you probably haven't received the 1099R yet. Revisit that area in a couple weeks or in Jan. Keep checking.
It is now February and I still can't figure out how to report a QCD with TurboTax 2021
@KarlJ It depends. In your Turbo Tax Online. Enter your QCD in accordance with the following instructions given by AnnetteB6 in the following Turbo Tax link..
When you transfer part of your IRA distribution to a charity as a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD), TurboTax will take your age into account and determine if you qualify to make a QCD. After you enter the information from your Form 1099-R which reports the distribution there will be some follow-up questions. One of those questions will be if the distribution was transferred to a qualified charitable organization. You can choose either all, part, or none of the distribution was transferred. This will take care of reporting the distribution correctly on your return.
Then, on your actual Form 1040, line 4a will include the amount of your distribution and line 4b will show any taxable amount ($0 if the entire distribution was transferred to the charitable organization) and the designation QCD will be shown on that line as well.
Use the following steps to get started entering your Form 1099-R that reports the distribution from your IRA:
I imported Investment data from my financial institution which included the 1099-R. There was no follow-up asking if any of the distribution was transferred to a charity. How do I enter this for accurate reporting on form 1040?
It depends. Qualified Charitable Distributions are only tax deductible on IRA distributions. Please look at the following IRS link for further details under Qualified Charitable distributions.
I am not getting the question asking if any of my charitable contributions were from an IRA. I don't know why. I did complete paperwork to Fidelity that maintains my IRA for the charitable donations.
First, the question about a QCD (Qualified Charitable Distribution) is asked as part of the 1099-R interview, that is, after you enter your 1099-R AND if your distribution is from an IRA, then you may be asked the question about QCD.
Second, unless you are at least 70 1/2 (and therefore eligible to make a QCD), TurboTax won't even ask you the question, because you couldn't answer YES anyway.
This means that the question about a QCD is NOT to be found in the charitable contribution section for Schedule A.
I am running into this same problem. Have you been able to figure it out? This is an inherited IRA. All of the distributions were qualified charitable donations but right now TurboTax is counting all of it as income. I've tried changing my age to prompt the question about it being a donation but it didn't work.
@Ias76 You will have to manually adjust the taxable amount from the 1099-R to reflect the charitable donation. If the inherited IRA is set up for charitable donation then adjusting the taxable amount is all that the program would do anyway. Save the paperwork in case you get an IRS inquiry.
Thanks. Following your answer step by step I finally noticed it.
In the interview itself I had been focused on looking for the letters "QCD", or "Qualified . . .Distribution" spelled out.
There are (as there needs to be) so many of these Do any of these situations apply? questions thru the whole interview, and so few end up applying, that it was ease for me (and others?) to rush through them. I would not have missed it if the interview question had just included its proper, common, name or acronym, "QCD", perhaps in ( ).
I can appreciate the goal of making the program as understandable, easy, and friendly as possible for unsophisticated users by using descriptions of situations rather than just the proper name. I (and others?) have a little more understanding and experience than that and have come to think in terms of those names/acronyms. Adding a short reference to them in the questions and in the Help items (as you did in your answer to me) would increasee the same three features, "understandable, easy, and friendly", for another category of TurboTax users.
Thanks again.
I am 73 and last year had my RMD sent as a QCD to a charity. This year while filing my taxes w/ turbotax I could not get the program to designate the QCD and I was never asked any questions about this being a QCD. I checked that my profile had the correct birthdate which should show the program that I am old enough to be asked the question. Any thoughts?
@jaynaa wrote:
I am 73 and last year had my RMD sent as a QCD to a charity. This year while filing my taxes w/ turbotax I could not get the program to designate the QCD and I was never asked any questions about this being a QCD. I checked that my profile had the correct birthdate which should show the program that I am old enough to be asked the question. Any thoughts?
Did you check the box labeled IRA/SEP/SIMPLE so the QCD questions would be asked after you completed entry of the Form 1099-R?
Turbotax requires information in Form 4852 when there is a QCD. It calls for filling Line 10 with "Explain your efforts to obtain Form W-2.
Turbotax should call for Form 4852 Line 9: How did you determine the amounts on Line 7 of Form 4852?
Unless you indicated that you are preparing a 'Substitute 1099-R' you should not have Form 4852.
When entering your 1099-R with IRA indicating and then that 'all of this distribution was RMD', the next screen asks about transferring all or part of the distribution to charity.
If you can give more details, we'll try to help.
I received a regular 1099-R and entered it.
I figured out that I erroneously checked the “I need to prepare a substitute 1099 R” box.
The problem is that once you are past the “Tell us which 1099 are you have” screen, you cannot get back to the “Tell us which 1099 you have” screen using the edit button.
The only way to fix this kind of error is to delete the 1099-R entirely and Add the 1099-R again.
The turbotax edit button should take you back to the “Tell us which 1099 are you have” screen.
But how does Turbo tax report qcds in my state (Massachusetts( return? How do we get Massachusetts credit for portions of my and my wife's IRA rmds that we used as qcds? thanks JJJRPL
When you enter the qcd in the federal input through your 1099R , it will seamlessly flow through to your Ma return on Sch X like this
In your federal input, enter your 1099r information as shown on the form you received, hit enter, enter till you get to this screen
then next screen, click I had all my distribution transferred to charity.
this will flow through to the Sch X as illustrated above.