Charitable contributions deduction problems/errors

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
March 4, 2022
2 replies
7 views

I'm having significant issues with Turbotax not correctly reporting entered charitable contribution information (specifically noncash donations and carry forward data) on Schedule A, and it looks to me that the calculation of using current year deductions vs carryforward amounts isn't correct.

Is anyone else experiencing similar issues?

mike s2Author

Level 2

Further to this message, it appears that Turbotax has changed how carryforward amounts are displayed on Schedule A from showing the total amount of the carryforward from prior years to just the amount of the carryforward used in the current year.

But what still seems odd is that when I designate a portion of my cash donations in 2021 for 100% deduction, the software allows use of a portion of the current year appreciated securities donations, along with a portion of the carryforward for appreciated securities from prior years.

This seems odd; I'm not expert, but does anyone know if this is correct?

Turbotax team, can you respond? Wondering if there is a software calculation issue involving the of use of carryforwards and the interplay with the 100% deduction opportunity.

mike s2Author

Level 2

Further to my two messages above, I'm wondering if the problem is with the data calculated as presented in the "Charitable Deduction Limits Worksheet for Carryover Contributions."

Simply put, Turbotax is allowing me to deduct a partial deduction from current year appreciated securities donations as well as the same amount from carry forwards of the same type of donation.

Turbotax team?

RaifH

Level 10

Thanks - I already provided this as part of INV #18814.

It appears to me that there is an error in how the use of prior year carryforwards is computed.

I received the note below and then followed up by calling again saying that the error wasn't fixed (and I wasn't sure what this note really meant in terms of next steps):

Hello,

Thanks for letting us know about your issue with your charity contributions carryover. We apologize for any inconvenience this caused.

We appreciate your patience while we looked into your issue. After investigating the issue, we found that this information is pulled from the 2020 Carryover Worksheet.

If you’re still having trouble or there’s something else we can help you with, feel free to give us a call.

Thank you,

The TurboTax Help Team

All charitable contributions from the current year must be deducted within the same category before using any carryover contributions from prior years. When I put in some test numbers in TurboTax, it calculated correctly.

Did your charitable deduction seems to be drawing partially from prior-year contributions of capital gains before deducting the entire current year's capital gains donation? If so, maybe if you delete the prior-year ones and put them back in, it will calculate correctly.

despenla

Level 5

@mike s2
Mike,

How did you open this case?

I would like to open a similar, parallel case.

mike s2Author

Level 2

While logged in to Turbotax, I entered questions into the ? tab at the upper right corner. Eventually if you say "that didn't help" to enough questions an option should appear for someone to call you back. I did this a few times but have to say spent at least a few hours in total talking to people who tried to be helpful but didn't understand the topic. They may want to share screens and look at your input which is useless in solving the issue and they can't see a return file if you pull it up.

I would strongly suggest that you simply say that there is a similar case outstanding (INV 18814) and insist on speaking with Marty (last name not provided) a tax expert working on that investigation. That's the best advise I can offer. Maybe someone else has a different suggestion.

despenla

Level 5

Thanks, Mike, for the advice and tips on how to get help with these issues.

After getting in to the details, I have also found errors were in the 2020 return that I did not notice last year.

Thanks for starting your thread.

I have started a second thread (Error in Calculation of Charitable Deduction Limits Worksheet) and am investigating even another problem which may lead to a third one.

Thanks for your help.