Charitable Contribution Error on California CA(540) and 540

[DBH1022]

I received my federal return today but it still makes me feel uneasy going back and editing that information.

[ask123]

I found this other forum regarding the same issue. It looks like zeroing it out on the Federal side is giving people the most results regarding acceptance. *Sigh*, will wait until my CA return is rejected yet again to try this route.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/state-taxes/discussion/anyone-else-s-ca-state-return-get-rejected-...

[ah94]

@ask123 Same. If my current one gets rejected, that's my next step. 

I WILL NEVER USE TURBOTAX AGAIN. 

[Jetfan]

@ask123  Still crazy that a possible fix is to zero out our charitable contributions.  If you're standard is bigger than your itemized deductions I guess it's no big issue.

[Reymarinaxo]

@Oxf911 Just tried it your way will update! Thank you.

[Reymarinaxo]

@Rebar08 i didn’t input any charitable donations on federal and was still rejected for state 

[ah94]

Well, it finally got accepted! Fourth time is the charm, I guess. 

I did this without having to zero out my contributions. Check my old reply for what I did - but basically, I manually put in my charitable amounts in Federal under Credits and Deductions or whatever, deleted CA, and redid it. 

See ya TurboTax. Definitely not using them for next year. I'd suggest everyone in this thread do the same. 

[Jetfan]

@Reymarinaxo  Did you get same error message as everyone else?

[iesharenee]

Turbotax is definitely losing me as a customer, like I paid good money for this awful service! I've gotten rejected twice now so went ahead and zero'd out contributions in federal. Hoping this will solve this issue like it has for other people 

[anigurophrat]

@ah94I just went back and entered my charitable contributions the same way. But I didn't delete my CA return. We'll see if that is enough.

After entering the charitable contributions as itemized entries in Federal, it DOES show up on the CA 540, Part II line 11. Note that Part II is for adjustments to federal itemized deductions. I am not itemizing. The box at the top of Part II is not checked which is correct. The amount shown does not impact my calculated tax liability since the standard deduction is taken and the AGI copied from my 1040 does not include the deduction. Itemizing the charitable contributions here does not modify the 1040 -- this is critical as mine has already been submitted and accepted.

I wonder if the Cares Act itemization for charity (1040 line 12b) needs to be explicitly declared on the 540, even though it will not impact the CA tax liability. This would make some sense. I'll soon find out.

To all those that are modifying your 1040, I would take caution with this approach. Best of luck, and will update with my success (or not).

[Reymarinaxo]

@Jetfan yes same exact message of CA charitable contribution hold. I’ve been rejected 3x now. 

[anigurophrat]

@ah94  Can you check your 540, Part II line 11 and see what's there? Is your charitable contribution listed in the Subtractions column?

[ah94]

@anigurophrat It just says '600' in Box A (Federal Amounts), which is correct. Additions and Subtractions are blank. 

[anigurophrat]

@ah94  Interesting! Well, that's how mine now shows as well. Maybe it will be accepted this time around.

I do think the 600 should be listed in column B as well, since that deduction is not allowed in CA, but ultimately has no bearing on the tax liability if taking a standard deduction. Thanks for the response.

🤞

[Jetfan]

@ah94 When you redid your State tax did you put your amount as an addition or subtraction? And just put in description CA Charitable Contribution?