Charitable Donation

[Rambo70]

Why am I not seeing any amount of my cash charitable donations appearing in line 12B on Fed form 1040SR? During the interview process, TT asked me to list the charitable organizations that we contributed to during 2021 and the amounts. The total cash and non-cash contributions totaled $900. I know that the most you can claim is $600 for married filing jointly. When I was through with my charitable contributions, I noticed that my refund did not increase. Also, when I reviewed my tax form 1040SR, line 12B was blank. I understand that the $600 is added to the standard deduction, $27,800. But it didn't happen.  Can you please tell me what I need to do? Thanking you in advance.

[Mike9241]

from what i've seen that section does not populate until you go through the review of the return

[DanaB27 · Accepted solution]

Yes, you can claim $600 as an adjustment to income (line 12b) if you made a cash contributions to a charitable organization, while claiming the Standard Deduction.

Please follow these steps to enter the charitable cash contribution for 12b :

1. Open you return
2. Click "Federal"
3. Click “Deductions &Credits” on the top
4. Click "I'll choose what to work on" (do not enter any donations under Charitable donations)
5. Scroll all the way down and click the "Done with deductions" button
6. Continue after the "The Standard Deduction is right for you!" screen
7. Continue until the "Get a tax break for donating cash to charity" screen
8. Enter your charitable cash contributions.

[Rambo70]

thank you for your quick response.

[Rambo70]

thank you and I'll follow your advice

[Rambo70]

I'm pleased to report that your instructions worked. I deleted all the amounts that I entered, previously, under the "Donations to Charity in 2021" section of "Charitable Donations." I then made my way to the "Standard Deduction is Right for you" screen. When I got the prompt to enter charitable contributions, I then entered that amount and my refund increased. But I am a little confused because I don't recall seeing that prompt after I entered all the charitable donations, previously. Now, perhaps I did get that prompt, and I may have just ignored it, I honestly don't recall.  Or maybe there is a "bug" in TT and your instructions were a work-around. Anyway, it worked and thank you again.

[rfscharm]

I did the work around but when printing the form or saving as a pdf for my file, the program does not put the total on line 12c.  The work around allows the $600 to show up but if anyone is filing a paper copy will this make a difference?  

[DaveF1006]

No.  This shouldn't make a difference.

[MeccaMike]

R U kidding me?  So you walk me thru the tax interview, ask me to enumerate all my charitable donations and then if you decide the std deduction is better you can't transfer the charitable amounts I entered to give me the $600?  Really?  I have to go delete them so the inane SW can reset?  This is pretty poor.  As a legacy HR Block user this is my first year with TurboTax and I'm not impressed so far.  You walk me thru a topic and if I answer "No" (e.g. I don't have any Child Care credit, etc), does the SW mark that section as complete? No. Does it give any indication that I even visited that section? No!  So I'm constantly looking back and wondering - did I miss something?

[Edward Hanson]

I could not find the "Get a tax break for donating cash to charity" section.

[JillS56]

Charitable Donations is located under the Deductions and Credits section of the federal return.  Scroll down to Charitable Donations.  Click on Donations to Charity in 2021.  Enter your charitable donations.