Form 1040-sr, Line 12b (charitable contributions if you take the standard deduction (Turbo Tax Deluxe)

[acdeleeuw]

We are married filing a joint return.  We have a charitable contribution of $2100 to our church.

When running the "Smart Check" on the federal return it says we have an unacceptable value on line 12b.

That value shows up to be $300 (as the unacceptable value)  The correct value should be $600 for us filling a joint return.

I change the value to $600 and re-run the "Smart Check" and it says there are now no errors.

When I do the check and/or final check before the "Filing" step, it goes through the "Analysis" process and it changes the $600 value back the $300.  I now have an unacceptable value again on the Federal return.

What do I do?

[ColeenD3 · Accepted solution]

Please see this post from JotikaT2.

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.

This will correct the issue and allow you to continue with your tax return.

[acdeleeuw]

Your solution resolved my question.  

Thanks!!

AL

[mw48]

I followed the instructions given to fix my federal taxes related to charitable contributions, but by removing them and adding them in a different place, in impacts my state taxes and reduced my state refund as it isn't showing any charitble contributions in my state tax return (KS), how do I fix this?

[KrisD15]

I am not an expert on the Kansas return, but it seems that in order to Itemize on the K-40, (and claim charitable contributions) you need to Itemize on your Federal return. 

If you want to take the 300/600 charity contribution, you must take the Standard Deduction and not Itemize.

However, you may be asking about the Kansas Community Service Contribution Credit K-60. 

For a work-around you can enter the donations under Deductions & Credits but as a non-cash item.

It is a bit cumbersome, but the result will be the same, the entry won't interfere with the 600 Charity Contribution. 

You would need to enter the amount as "Items" and name the charity. 

Select "I'll value them"

Enter the date

Select "Other personal property"

Type CASH as the description and the amount

Enter the Purchase as the same as the amount donated, Type Various as Date Acquired and  Select Purchase as How Acquired

This information goes to a TurboTax worksheet and is not transmitted with your tax returns. 

Keep the information about the donations with your tax file. 

This should allow you to carry an amount over to your state return 

[drichert]

If I follow this advise, the Minnesota return won't give me credit for what it finds in charitable gifts. 

[PDXMLT]

I need the full amount of charitable deductions for my Oregon State taxes as I will use the itemized deduction in Oregon but the standard for the Feds. If I delete the entries how do I get the full amount for the Oregon return

[macpharlan]

This is a bug, if I want to itemize I should be able to, but it is treating it as a STD deduction.

I went to the deduction section where I could change from STD to Itemized and noticed the Fed return value it gives me is actually for the STD deduction, even if I change to itemized. It is acting like it is doing a Std Deduction regardless if I choose Itemize. The 12b item if I read it correctly should be blank if itemizing. 

[PDXMLT]

Thank you for the response, I think it is a bug. I tried to change it to “0” and still got the error message, I left it bland still got an error message. I need to have the Federal Schedule A to do the Oregon return and itemize on the Oregon return.   

[PDXMLT]

This is a long process, now how do I then get them back into the Oregon return?

[KrisD15]

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

(NOTE: Some states allow you to Itemize Deductions when taking the Standard Deduction on the Federal Return. To include cash charitable donations as an Itemized Deduction on your STATE return, you can enter the donations as "Items" select "I'll value them, select "Other intangible property" enter the description as CASH, since it was and the amount as the value.)

Go back through the review. The program will ask you for your charity donation again although it may not be until after the state return is finished, at the END of the FINAL REVIEW.  (After the "Tax Summary for 2021" screen)

 Enter the amount up to 600 Married Filing Joint.

Unless your cash donations are limited by your income, this procedure (listing cash as items) will give you the same result on your state return as entering under cash donations. 

The Tax law allows a Taxpayer to claim Charity Donations on their Schedule A or, if using the Standard Deduction, on their 1040 line 12b as an addition to their Standard Deduction amount. 

This amount can be up to 600 for Married Filing Joint, or 300 for all others.

[PDXMLT]

Thank you, I will try it, still seems like a lot of extra work.

[DeltonaBob]

Basically, after working with TurboTax support, the solution is a kludge. (delete all contributions to charity data in the forms to just leave one entry with $600 for filing jointly in my case).

This should be a concern as the whole purpose of entering data into the forms is to provide a record of truth in preparing taxes.

My opinion is that the software should have calculated the result properly into the 12b box correctly based upon the rule of a limitation of either $300 or $600 (even if the pre-populated contributions within the forms exceeded that amount). 

[macpharlan]

I agree, especially if you are itemizing, why would you remove items?  This is making me doubt turbotax (and I have been using it for years), if I am audited they are not going to represent me for their own mistake.

[JamesG1]

You would not remove the items in the online version under Federal / Deductions & Credits / Your tax breaks / Donations to Charity in 2021 if:

• The intent is to itemize deductions, and
• You qualify to itemize deductions in your tax return.

Removing the donation entries allows the software to qualify your tax return for the standard deduction so that you will see the screen Based on what you just told us, the Standard Deduction is best for you.

When your tax return qualifies to itemize deductions, you do not see the screen to enter a Charitable Cash Contributions under the CARES Act.