Charitable Contribution Error during Tax Final Review

To reap tax benefits for making charitable donations, you must generally itemize your deductions rather than taking the standard deduction.

• For 2021, if you're claiming the standard deduction, you may claim up to $600 per tax return for those filing married filing jointly and $300 for other filing statuses.

You can correct this by logging back into your TurboTax program and following the steps below.

1. Click on the Federal Taxes tab.
2. Select the Deductions & Credits tab.
3. On the screen titled How do you want to enter your deductions and credits?, select I'll choose what I work on.
4. Scroll down to Charitable Donations.
5. Select Update to the right of Donations to Charity in 2021.
6. You will see a screen titled Review All Your Charities.
7. To the right of any deductions entered, select Delete to remove any input.
8. You will then select Done with Charitable Donations.
9. On the next page (Deductions), scroll down to the bottom and click on Done with Deductions.
10. Proceed through the following screens until you pass the screen letting you know you are getting the Standard Deduction.  
11. The next screen titled Charitable Cash Contributions under the Care Act will allow you to enter your charitable contributions for 2021.  Enter your total cash contributions on this screen and select Continue.

Source: JotikaT2 Employee Tax Expert

@HelenC12 

For 2021 there is a $600 deduction for people who take the standard deduction.  They do not have to itemize.  Last year it was $300.  The poster needs the 2021 directions for the $600.   Please edit this and give the correct instructions.

Hello all,

I also experienced this problem.

This description/workaround did correct the problem. But I would like to add a comment -

From my 2020 tax return I had a number of charitable organizations listed under the charitable donations tab. I found that just leaving the list, even if you do not have any donation value will still cause the problem. As the description says, you need to delete every entry in the charitable donation list......just having zero dollars in the entries will not resolve the issue.

Glenn B

I'm having the same issue. When it runs the error check, it changes my itemized charitable donations to $300 rather than changing it to $600. It has to be a bug. When it runs the error check and changes the deduction to $300, you can watch your return reduce. It shows the error, I make the change to $600, and everything works...unless I run an error check again. I can definitely delete the itemization and just put in $600, but I itemize to ensure I'm not going to have deductions higher than the standard deduction. We shouldn't have to itemize, and then delete it again.

If you wish to take the Standard Deduction and claim 600 for the Charitable Contribution Credit, please return to the Deductions & Credits section.  Scroll down to "Charitable Donations" and DELETE any cash entries you made there. 

The program will ask you for that entry at the END of the FINAL REVIEW. 

You may then enter 600 and it will stick. 

Thanks. I understand you can do that. I'm suggesting that should not be necessary. The system should do that for you without erroring out. But thanks again for the response. 

Isn't it just TOO BAD that it's FEB 4 and TT has not taken 15 minutes to fix this TERRIBLE BLUNDER!

If you wait long enough the system will update and not need a fix.

😊 That is true. I was anxious and filed last night to get that refund. 😊 Happy taxing everyone!

I am married filing jointly and when doing final check Turbo Tax changes the $600 cash donation to $300.  I added a supporting detail with explanation to correct this back to the allowable $600.  If I run the review again it will change it again.  This is an error and needs to be fixed!

Go through your deductions and credits and remove anything that you put as a charitable donation.  Then review again and use $600 to answer the question about charitable donations.  Make sure you use Chrome browser clear browsing data for All Time before signing into TurboTax or open in incognito browser.

This does not work for when taking the Federal itemized deduction and the taking the New York State itemized deduction.  When tunning the State check it changes back.  Please advise if Trubo tax is correcting this or i need to purchase alternative software?

Patrick

Please see the steps in the below TurboTax help article to see if they resolve the issue. If not, please comment back.

Why am I getting an error message after entering charitable cash donations when claiming the Standard Deduction?

@szalapa1

To be more precise.  When i completed the 1040 Line 12 b was flagged as an error and i corrected to $600 (married filing jointly).  For the Federal Form i Take the Standard deduction as it is better then the Itemized deductions. For my State return (New York) I take the Itemized Deduction because it is higher than Standard Deduction.  When i run the error check for the State, Turbo Tax automatically goes back and changes the

Federal Line 12b back to $300.  When I toggle back to the Federal Review Turbo Tax changes Line 12 b back to $600. 

If I follow your advise and delete the itemized cash contributions back to $600,  I  will pay more in NY State Taxes as it reduces my itemized deductions.   Additionally, I have filed this way the past 2 to 3 years using Trurbo Tax without an issue.  There appears to be an issue with Turbo Tax regarding the treatment of staking the Standard deduction in Federal and itemizing in States (at least with NY State) that needs to be correct. 

Please advise. 

Mark NY state to print and mail and then efile the Federal,

Then go back and change the Federal and efile the state and then make your changes to federal so it is correct.  

Or just wait for a fix/

That does not fix the problem

Correct it is a band aid not a fix.  A fix will happen someday.  You can work around this or wait for a permanent change to the software that allows the charitable deduction for standard deduction filers even when there is data in the fields.

Thanks! 

I cannot delete the charitable deductions on my federal return because the Kansas return uses those amounts to itemize on my state return.  What do I do?

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@gj51 wrote:

I cannot delete the charitable deductions on my federal return because the Kansas return uses those amounts to itemize on my state return.  What do I do?

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Please return to the Deductions & Credits section, scroll down to "Charitable Donations" and DELETE any cash entries you made there.

To include charitable donations for your state return, you can enter the donations as "Items" select "I'll value them, select "Other intangible property" enter the description as cash if it was and the amount as the value.

Go back through the review. The program will ask you for that number again although it may not be until the END of the FINAL REVIEW. (After the "Tax Summary for 2021" screen)

Enter the amount up to 600 Married Filing Joint.

When I do this, it enters 300 even though I am married filing jointly and believe it should be 600 according to the form.

I filled out an online form to refund my turbo tax purchase. There is also a major flaw with the KY state efile. Cannot file either with turbo tax. Ridiculous! I will use another tax software. Was on the phone for 4 hours with Turbo Tax and still no fix. Not good. 

Still does not work. If you enter the correct amount, then it reviews again and you get there same error

In the exact same boat here in KY. There’s also a major flaw with turbo tax and KY efile this year. Have used turbo tax for years. I requested a refund online and will purchase a different software to use. Not good turbo tax!