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

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.

Your solution resolved my question.  

Thanks!!

AL

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?

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 

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

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

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. 

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.   

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

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.

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

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). 

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.

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.

That is not my case. When I itemize it says that is the best option as it is over 25k. And it also shows I’ll get more $ back if I itemize BUT it does not actually update my refund with the itemized amount when I select it, it stays with the value shown in standard deduction. I can change back and forth and my return value on federal does not change, it is keeping the  standard figures regardless of what I pick

I really thought I was going NUTS trying to get the same **bleep** error message to go away -- after repeatedly correcting the WRONG $300 value with the CORRECT $600 value i DON'T KNOW how many times!! I finally decided to give this forum thing a shot and entered a query -- truly believing I was the only one having this issue! THANKS SO MUCH FOR SHOWING THE SOLUTIONL or WORK AROUND!! Believe it or not I've been a dedicated user of Turbotax for well over 25 years and this is the first time I've had such a stubborn issue and also the first time I've sought help from the forum!! AGAIN, THANKS SO MUCH!!

JERRY SEGAL

Plantation, Florida

Ok logged in today and looks like bug is fixed. I chatted with a live expert, she showed me that my itemized amount was 25350, so that was what I picked, but then it chose the standard underneath because the standard with the $600 cash donation was more than my standard.

so Even though I chose itemized it was really picking standard

Using Basic version from a CD. After several attempts to revise the amount of charitable contributions after standard deduction, I went directly to line 12C on the 1040 form which allowed me to enter specific name and amounts which all have receipts . The total was more than 600, but it passed the review. The printed 1040 shows the standard deduction and the  value over 600 on line 12b. Is this legal? If not how did it pass the review? What do I need to do if anything?

First, be sure that you have updated the program to the latest version by going to Online > Check for Updates in the upper left section of the screen.  

If your printed Form 1040 line 12b is showing an amount greater than $600 for any filing status, then it is incorrect.  The amount must have been entered using the override option or it would have been flagged as an error.  

Take a look at the amount reported on lines 12a and 12c to determine if the incorrect amount on line 12b was actually used in the calculation.  If line 12c is equal to 12a minus 12b, then you should amend your return to correct it. 

When I attempted to enter an incorrect value for line 12b, the program would not accept it unless it was an override.  Even with the override, the line 12c calculation was correct regardless of what was entered on line 12b.  As long as line 12c is correct, then there is no issue with your return.

@jimg4956

Thanks for the reply.