Charitable donations with standard deduction

[KAR9]

This is a dumb error. TurboTax is not calculating the correct amount. It should be $300 for single and $600 for married filing joint. It calculates $300. If you are filing married joint, just enter $600 in place of the $300 and it clears the error.

[sfisher899]

Work around worked great!!

[camassa]

Come on, TT programmers.  This is an error.  It shouldn't require a workaround.  Just fix the darn problem.

[busreset]

I hit this error, too.  Not only does the bug exist, they still haven’t fixed it after at least a month of knowing about it, and there isn’t a single Intuit support person you can contact that even has ever heard of this problem.

[roses are red]

Finally! That worked. Thank you!

[Keith44053]

You can enter the correct amount but if you run a final review it will change your entry back to $300 and then highlight it as an error.  It is a programming problem. 

[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:

@Keith44053

[MamaDeerinSnow]

Thanks, but I feel it may be a little trickier (and more random).  We file jointly and take the standard deduction, but I could not get the correct number in the little box. We wound up having only $425 in cash deductions this year, but TT kept refilling with $300 no matter what I did.  I have gone doggedly through several iterations of solutions, including the solutions in this posting to the point that I'm not sure what finally worked.  I never got back to the ACA script, which I remembered from last year, but when last I saved, closed, and reopened, it stayed correct.  I think this is an area TT needs to take a look at.

[InNewJersey]

TT also doesn't recognize that the deduction limit for Married Filing Joint is $600, not just $300.  It's printed on 1040 form and in IRS Pubs.  Also, are you all saying that to override the TT error we loose charitable deduction details in our file?

[MamaDeerinSnow]

I honestly don't know how I managed finally to get it right.  If you click on the contributions for standard deduction takers (12b), there is a box where you can add details of the contributions and it has a check box for the option to NOT print if you don't want them to show.  I originally had details in the regular place for contributions and then in the 12b detail, but once I had gotten it to behave properly for the amount (for us only $425 this year) by a sort of hit or miss process of deletion and correction, I didn't want to mess with it further.  It now has the correct amount both in the 12a box and 12b boxes. 

Call me cowardly, but my aim each year is just to what it takes to complete my family returns correctly with as little grief as possible.  My spouse wants me to "just go back to pencil and paper", but he hasn't done a return for the last 30 years, so what does he know? : )

[DianeW777]

That's great. And I agree, pencil and paper is no longer the way to go. Here is some information that may be helpful to make sure the contributions are included with the standard deduction if there is an experience that seems challenging.

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 married filing jointly ($300 for other filing status) 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 populate as it should. 

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

@MamaDeerinSnow

@InNewJersey

[Edited: 02/15/2022 | 11:22a PST]

[InNewJersey]

as a number of posters have mentioned, that solution doesn't hold up.  The software will overwrite it upon review.  and even if it worked then intact TT tax records lose valuable detail.  can't the software be corrected? it's only a short stack if IF/THEN? it worked for 2020 when it was just $300.   this time it would just add the step to query whether Single or Joint return and then apply the appropriate limit to actual charitable deductions

[KAR9]

The problem with removing all other deductions is that you will not be able to use them for your state return if your state return allows them. I am with many other posters - WHY NOT JUST FIX THE CODE? This is the at least second error I've found in TurboTax this year. The other is in the business version of the program and it was WORSE!! I finally gave up trying to make the business program work and took it to my financial planner to prepare. It's going to cost me $1,500, but at least I will know it is right.

I'm about fed up with TurboTax and I've used it probably since its beginnings. Where did quality control go? And, this is not the only thing that the program catches in the review that should have been handled in the interview portion of the program. When the review catches places that you must put something (usually a 0 or an X) that was not asked for in the interview, then the interview is not complete.

[deetrumpet]

May I respectfully suggest that the problem is now clear, and we're all interested in reading solutions. But it's unhelpful to make well-founded complaints about TurboTax. A still-unresolved question is this: If you take the standard deduction on your federal) return, but itemize on your state return, how do you enter your charitable contributions for state-tax purposes without triggering the error warning in your federal error-check? Has anyone figured out yet how to accomplish this?

[DaveF1006]

@deetrumpet To clarify, what state are you a resident of?