topic Re: Possible Bug charitable deduction in Deductions & credits

Possible Bug charitable deduction

SRK7A — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 05:59:39 GMT

Filing Married jointly with Turbotax Deluxe with Charitable deductions over $600. Review tab first changes the $600 charitable deduction to $300. Then it flags the $300 as an error. Correcting it manually makes the return correct again. I noticed the bug because it took my refund down and then put it back up to the original amount after the manual input of $600.

Re: Possible Bug charitable deduction

AnnetteB6 — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 13:14:30 GMT

For the 2021 tax return using the Married Filing Joint filing status, you are allowed to deduct up to $600 in cash contributions to charity without claiming itemized deductions.

If you are using the Married Filing Joint filing status AND using the standard deduction:

As you go through your Federal return and you have entered your charitable contributions, you will not see any additional questions regarding your inputs. If your state return also allows you to deduct charitable contributions, then the amounts you entered will be taken into account on your state return.

After you have finished your state return and you are getting ready to file, when you run the final Review, you will probably see this message:

1040/1040SR Wks: Charitable Contributions: Charitable contributions has an unacceptable value

You will also see a place at the top of the screen for Charitable contributions with '300' in the box. Below that box, you can see your Form 1040 line 12a which shows the amount of your cash contributions that you already entered.

If your line 12a is greater or equal to $600, enter '600' in the box at the top of the screen.

If your line 12a is less than $600, enter your line 12a amount in the box at the top of the screen.

After changing the input at the top of the screen to the correct value, proceed through any other errors that may pop up and then move forward to file your return. It is very important that you do not revisit any other section of your return before you file or the change may not be retained or able to be changed a second time.

See the screenshot below for reference:

Re: Possible Bug charitable deduction

SRK7A — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 13:28:44 GMT

That is precisely what happened, but please do not suggest it is a feature rather a bug. 😊 TurboTax knows my status is married filing jointly and that my charitable deductions are more than 600. There is zero reason I can see for requiring me to manually correct what was 600 and changed to 300 under review. All the review had to do was leave it correct. 😂