Charitable donations with standard deduction

[Keith44053]

Kudos to TT if resolved.  Perhaps they do read and pay attention to these posts.  

[Keith44053]

You do not need to delete the specific contributions and just enter the total. Itemizing to specific contributions has nothing to do with the programming error being discussed here.  Know however that even if you elect to take the standard deduction, you can also take a contribution deduction of up to $300 ($600 if married). 

[JMT77]

There's still remains an error about this issue in the Turbo Tax program (Turbo Tax Premier, updated yesterday, 3/24/2022).  At the end of Deductions & Credits under Federal Taxes, after entering Done with Deductions, and pressing Continue twice, you come to the page Here are Your 2020 and 2021 Deductions & Credits, which is a summary of your situation.  That page shows a list of your individual deductions (Standard Deduction, Charitable Cash Contributions, and possibly others), and the last line, "Total Deductions."  The error is that the "Total Deductions" is not the correct sum of the individual deductions (For me, for 2021, the individual items were not summed, but the value entered as "Total Deductions" was just the Standard Deduction -- leaving the impression that the program was ignoring the Charitable Cash Contributions).  I talked to a Turbo Tax rep, and he denied that the "Total Deductions" should be the sum of the individual items!!!!!!!!!!!!  

At any rate, despite the fact that this interface page of the program is in error, the entries on the actual 1040 form appear to be correct! 

[InNewJersey]

Since I didn't have to itemize, I simply persistently did an override to get my 600 to stick. and I am ready to file.

Yet another problem is the Social Security Benefits Worksheet. It comes to the right answer to carry to 1040 BUT all the lines (calculations) are left blank except for first and last figures.  Just the accountant in me, if you have a blank worksheet then you don't have a worksheet for your records. bah!

[chinga52]

Try viewing your Tax form 1040

1. If you are getting "Standard Deduction": you will not be getting the entire $$ amount. Instead, on form 1040  you should see under Cares Act  the charitable deduction allowed  is $600.00 (married) ot 300 (single).  This applies to only cash donation.

your total deduction = to Standard Deduction + Cares Act (Charitable deduction)

[Keith44053]

Good catch.  You would think that when errors are reported, representatives would simply say ‘Thank you. We will report’ or ‘We will investigate’. Alternately, they could try to convince you that Total doesn’t really mean Total. 

[JMT77]

To chinga52: 

Yes, that is what I said, except per the TT program: 

your Total Deduction IS NOT = Standard Deduction + Charitable Donation !!!!!!!

[JamesG1]

In TurboTax Desktop Premier version, I am able to view the screen Here are your 2021 Deductions & Credits.

The screen is reporting the value for the standard deduction in addition to the value of Federal 1040 line 12b Charitable Cash Contributions under CARES Act.

I can also access FORMS in the upper right hand corner of the screen and view Form 1040.  The same values are reflected on lines 12a and 12b of the 2021 Federal 1040 tax return.

Within the TurboTax software, line 12b Charitable Cash Contributions must qualify for the standard deduction before the value is posted. Since the screen The Standard Deduction is Right for You! follows  the screen Here are your 2021 Deductions & Credits, you may have viewed the first screen before the second screen had qualified the deduction.

Are you now able to return to the screen Here are your 2021 Deductions & Credits. and view that the standard deduction and the line 12b Charitable Cash Contributions under CARES Act are now both reported?

@JMT77

[InNewJersey]

you are weeks behind.  I fixed mine with persistent overrides and then TT finally responded to all the, well, complaints that the problem was ignored.  it may work now but had to file my return so it's done.

[KAR9]

All good. It took some time, but TT did fix it. Thank you, TT.

[JMT77]

To JamesG1: 

Yes, they are both reported on that interface page of the program (and also on the 1040 form), but as I said in the original post, the problem is that the Total Deduction is not the sum of the 2 items!  (Although the correct sum is shown appropriately on Form 1040.)

[JMT77]

To InNewJersy: 

No, TT did not respond, and the problem has not been fixed. 

[JMT77]

To KAR9: 

No, TT has still not fixed the problem. 

[nwdean]

If I didn't already know about this deduction I would have missed it entirely! I suspect many people will. I finally found it on the 1040 form itself and entered my $600.

Turbotax should be ashamed for not making this easy! An update is desperately needed!

[sarber12]

not updating taxes