How do I report this Charitable Contributions BUG???

[MMcCants]

Why do you claim this blunder is "solved" when TT continues to flag the $600 as an error even today?

[mrsdawnedavis]

MMcCants, thanks for the follow-up. I can't find either one of the messages I posted so I don't know what I said exactly, but I had intended to make it clear that not only has TT done nothing to fix this issue, but it was an issue back in 2020 as well!  In addition, TT does not seem to have trained their employees on a work-around.  I find it intellectually incredible that the software has not been fixed for two straight years of tax filings.  JotikaT2, towards the top of this thread, provided a work-around that worked perfectly.  I was really appreciative of his/her help because TT had me try all kinds of things to fix the issue, and nothing they said worked.  

[MMcCants]

The MFJ limit was $300 last year and I do not think there was a problem.  The MFJ limit is $600 this year and TT is so incompetent that they still have not fixed this BLUNDER.

[cautery]

NOT SOLVED!  NOT FIXED!

Shame on you and shame on Intuit for allowing this travesty to continue and for passing this kludgy work-around off as a solution.

[TopMen]

Yes, you are correct. I am married filing jointly and taking the standard deduction.

I import the charitable donations from Its deductible online.

It does not give you the $600 deduction for 2021

You can delete all of your entries imported from Its deductible and manually correct it to $600 for the federal return.

However, when you delete all of the charitable contributions that you imported from Its deductible, you state return, in my case Wisconsin, thinks had no charitable contributions. So, my itemized deduction credit is too small.

Then, I re-import all of the donations that I tracked inside Its deductible. That fixes the Itemized deduction credit on the Wisconsin return. Then the software changes the federal amount back to $300 from $600, I think after he error check. It's an endless loop that you can only exit with the correct data if you don't repeat the error checking. It is simply incorrect and an obvious bug in the software that will affect many people if it's not corrected.  I would assume many other states would give some kind of credit or deduction for charitable contributions.

They need to fix this quickly because it does affect a lot of people. It is not an obscure deduction.

Everyone should be closely checking for the $300 or $600 charity deduction on their federal return and verify that their respective state return is also accounting for it properly.

Double-check your returns, federal and state!

[Kennepede]

That is not possible on the CD version running on a Mac. The only way I can change it is to go to the form. The bug is that the amount gets changed to $300 after the second verification check. When will this get fixed? If I have to make updates, I have to go through this workaround each time. From other posts, it appears that this is a regression bug from the 2020 app. Between the 8812 bug and this one, I have spent two hours troubleshooting. Please fix. 

[Kennepede]

Agreed! 

[Anonymous]

I tried just changing the amount to $600 as we are filing jointly, but that did not seem to work either. 

When will Turbo Tax get this fixed?  We are encouraged to file early by Turbo Tax, but then there are these issues and no way to report them directly or get any satisfaction or notification that they have been fixed.  Since this also affects your overall AGI, this is a serious issue and will also impact state taxes in many if not most states. 

[haasekw]

I have updated the software and corrected the deductions for charitable deductions to the amount allowed and I still get this message "The Intuit Electronic Filling System is having difficulty recognizing the data in the return you are sending...."so it still won't let me electronically file even thought they charged me.

Please help me with this issue. 

Thanks!

[DianeW777]

Use the article below that provides steps to eliminate this issue. Why am I getting an error for my charitable contributions?

We appreciate your experience and have an alternate way to accomplish this for you.

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. 

@haasekw

[haasekw]

I did change that and it corrected it so there are no errors but still gives me the same message when I try to electronically file. 

[Anonymous]

I imported my charitable donations using its deductible.com import and then still got this error.  If I delete all, then is there a reason to use itsdeductible other than for tracking donations thoughout the year? 

[scottmcn807]

Wow. What a POS this year's program is. This is very frustrating.

[AnnetteB6]

For the 2021 tax return using the Married Filing Joint filing status, you are allowed to deduct up to $600 in cash contributions to charity without claiming itemized deductions.

If you are using the Married Filing Joint filing status AND using the standard deduction:

As you go through your Federal return and you have entered your charitable contributions, you will not see any additional questions regarding your inputs.  If your state return also allows you to deduct charitable contributions, then the amounts you entered will be taken into account on your state return. 

After you have finished your state return and you are getting ready to file, when you run the final Review, you will probably see this message:

1040/1040SR Wks:  Charitable Contributions:  Charitable contributions has an unacceptable value

You will also see a place at the top of the screen for Charitable contributions with '300' in the box.  Below that box, you can see your Form 1040 line 12a which shows the amount of your cash contributions that you already entered. 

If your line 12a is greater or equal to $600, enter '600' in the box at the top of the screen.

If your line 12a is less than $600, enter your line 12a amount in the box at the top of the screen.

After changing the input at the top of the screen to the correct value, proceed through any other errors that may pop up and then move forward to file your return.  It is very important that you do not revisit any other section of your return before you file or the change may not be retained or able to be changed a second time.

See the screenshot below for reference:

@haasekw

[Kennepede]

Thank you for the workaround. So it appears that this is a software defect that is not going to be resolved. If that is the case, would it be possible to send out notifications to users about the workaround instead of letting us figure it out ourselves? It makes me question the accuracy and reliability of software so crucial, not to mention wasted time troubleshooting.