topic 2021 Charitable Cash contribution deduction in Deductions & credits

2021 Charitable Cash contribution deduction

cozman — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 08:10:27 GMT

The tax code states that in 2021 that the law allows taxpayers to apply up to 100% of their AGI for qualified contributions. Qualified contributions are cash contributions to qualifying charitable organizations. It also states that this not automatic and the tax payer must choose to take the limit for a qualified contribution.

I entered my cash contributions to qualified charitable organizations in turbotax premier and it is still limiting the deduction. How do i get turbotax to apply these up to 100% of my AGI?

Re: 2021 Charitable Cash contribution deduction

HelenC12 — Sun, 13 Mar 2022 14:33:17 GMT

Are you itemizing your deductions on Schedule A? To qualify, you must itemize your deductions. If you're taking the standard deduction, the contribution does not apply.

I tested the 100% limit by entering itemized deductions. During the Charitable Contributions onscreen interview, on the Donation Limits page, TurboTax gives me a choice for Donation Type (100%/50% Charity), special election for churches, Goodwill, schools, etc. The 100% of my AGI amount is reflected on my Form 1040, line 12 a.

To preview your 1040, click here.

Re: 2021 Charitable Cash contribution deduction

cozman — Sun, 13 Mar 2022 14:43:23 GMT

Helenc12 thank you for the reply. I am itemizing with schedule A and i see no such prompt when I go to enter my cash charitable contribution. When it goes to the menu to enter the contribution it asks for the charity name, how often I gave, the amount of each, and the number of donations. There are no other options for setting the percentage.

I am using the Premier version and I also tried to manually go into the worksheet and modify the type of deduction and it had no effect. I checked and again and have all updates. Do you have any other suggestions?

Re: 2021 Charitable Cash contribution deduction

HelenC12 — Sun, 13 Mar 2022 15:14:05 GMT

Yes, update TurboTax, delete all your contributions, delete your cookies, clear your cache and reboot. Then re-enter your cash contributions. I tested the Cd\Download version and I got the same screens as my original answer.

Note: The Donation Limits screen comes up after you enter your charitable contributions. Select the "Done with Charitable Donations" and the next screen that comes up for me is Donation Limits.

Re: 2021 Charitable Cash contribution deduction

cozman — Sun, 13 Mar 2022 16:47:11 GMT

Helen,

Let me clarify that I an using the desktop/cd version for a MAC. I did all of the things you suggested previously and just did them again - checked for updates (there were none), removed my deduction, deleted cookies, cleared cache, cleared history (although since I am using the desktop version I don't think the latter apply). Having said that it made no difference. When i go to enter a cash contribution it only prompts me to enter the name of the entity, how often, and the amount of the donation. I can go directly to the worksheet that it is building and it shows it as a 50% deduction. i try to manually changed this to 100% and it has no effect.

What do you suggest I do to correct this?

Re: 2021 Charitable Cash contribution deduction

cozman — Sun, 13 Mar 2022 19:15:44 GMT

Attached is an example of what I see when i enter the charitable cash contribution. I see no option to specify that it should be set at 100% and the worksheet underneath shows 50%. When I select done it simply goes back to the screen to add more donations.

Re: 2021 Charitable Cash contribution deduction

BillM223 — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 19:45:28 GMT

TurboTax decides whether or not it needs to ask you about the 30/50/100% limit according to what you enter.

In my test case, it did not ask about the 30% limit until the aggregate of contributions rose to about 30% of AGI.

For each contribution after that, it again would ask me for the 30% limit. Even when I reached 100% of AGI, it never asked me about the 50/100% limit, but on each Charitable Organization Worksheet, the "(c) 50% Charity, 100% donation" would be checked.

So, how many cash contributions do you have, and is one a significant percentage of your AGI?

@cozman