Form 8283 is not generating and I have entered charitable donations. This form is needed to file with my state taxes. Can someone please call me?

[ChristieB]

If you are using the desktop version, if you click on Forms in the upper right-hand corner and go to Schedule A (if you can't find it, you can click on Open Form and type it in to search for it), are your non-cash charitable contributions listed on Line 12? 

If your contributions are over $500 for this category, this is when it generates Form 8283 to include with your return. You can type 8283 into Open Form and it should populate with your entries even if you did not exceed the $500. 

Also, if you are taking the Standard Deduction on Line 8 of your Form 1040 and not itemizing, your Form 8283 will not generate. 

[BettiBopper]

I am taking the standard deduction, my donations are greater than $500, and I need to submit the 8283 form with my California state taxes.  The only way I was able to generate the form was to change to itemized deductions, open and print the 8283 form, and then change back to the standard deductions.   Your system should generate the 8283 regardless of how I take deductions Since California franchise tax board requires the form of the donations are more than $500, which ours are.  My federal taxes are filed with standard deductions and the California state taxes are itemized.

Also, the form only shows in the open forms list if you itemize deductions.

[Gardenia48]

The bug in TurboTax premier that I have yearly is that I take the standard deduction on federal but itemize on the state of Alabama return. TurboTax will not generate form 8283 needed for the state return. I search for the form and in past years made it print. This year it did not print a detailed list from it’s deductible. I had to type a list of donations and their value myself since it was over $500. I attached the list to the incomplete form 8283. 
Another problem was that I entered information on the wrong form. When I discovered my mistake and deleted it from the wrong form and entered it on the correct one, turbo kept putting it back. I had to override the entries and then turbo kept saying there were errors in my return. I had to print it and mail it because turbo won’t file if it says there are errors.

At one point the program would not continue. It kept going back to the same entry. Online help,was stumped and tried to reload the program.

Not happy this year with TurboTax.

[Gardenia48]

Same thing happening with my Alabama return. Since I don’t itemize on federal turbo won’t generate form 8283 for my state return.  Big in the program. This year after I made it print the form did not give a detailed list of donations. I had to type it on a separate sheet and attach it to the form.

[monumentgirl]

I am having same issue.  Colorado requires the 8283 if donations exceed $5000, but I am not itemizing on Federal return.  How do I get and submit the form, especially if I file both returns electronically?

[MarilynG1]

@monumentgirl If you enter your Charitable Donations in your Federal Return (even if you are not itemizing), TurboTax should generate form 8283 for you.

If you are using TurboTax Desktop, you can fill out the form yourself using FORMS mode and asking for Form 8283 in 'Open Form'. 

Others have suggested switching to 'Itemized' to generate the form and then switching back to 'Standard' to file. 

Click this link for more info on How to Switch from Standard to Itemized Deductions (or vice versa). 

[MtnTABS]

[I’m linking this to your previous response so that you can forward it to the TT software gurus. I’m afraid it is too late for 2020 returns, sadly.]

05/09/2021
When we purchase TURBOTAX Deluxe Cd/Desktop (Windows) and it says right on the box that it includes one free state return, how in the world are we supposed to know that not all the forms needed for our state return are going to be printed before we send the state return in snail mail? We are paying for both our Federal and State returns to be generated in compliance with the tax laws.

When I go through the itemizing steps during Federal input and TurboTax then says Standard Deductions are to my advantage, TurboTax is still supposed to feed the itemized numbers into our State returns. In my case, before I even started working on my State return, TT told me that Married, Filing Separately was best (spouse only lived two months of 2020). Indeed, I eFiled Federal before beginning the State return and my printed Federal copy included a COMPLETED STATE RETURN, MARRIED, FILING SEPARATELY! I did not plug in those numbers; those numbers were generated by TT from the Step-by-Step during Federal prep. I had carefully entered each non-cash contribution item into It’s Deductible that evidently came with my software. The total added up to over $500 and that amount is showing on my State return BUT still no 8283 is on my FORMS list nor did one print out when I concluded entries for my State return. Montana Dept. of Revenue states that Form 8283 must be sent with the return.

When we do the laborious work of typing in a whole wardrobe of clothing donated to charity, piece by piece for valuation, that time and effort should be on an 8283 for our state returns or at least the names and addresses of the accepting charities should be on an 8283.  

Thank you for reading this and I hope you hand it off to whomever can fix this problem before the 2021 TurboTax software blankets office supply stores and Amazon in February, 2022. I truly appreciate all the help I received on this board over the last seven weeks for without it I would never have gotten this far. A few too many TT software glitches but the I.R.S. didn’t help matters either. 

[BettiBopper]

FYI...Turbo Tax did not update their 2021 software to include form 8283 with state taxes.  Form is still unable to be attached to state taxes to send the document electronically.  

[whodiini]

You are absolutely correct.  I have verified that it does not efile the 8283 if you take the standard deduction in the federal return, even if you  itemize in your state return and there is no way to force it to do so.  I am also unable to efile my state return due to this issue.  If I include form 8283 in my state return, then I am not actually sending what was filed with my federal return.  The additional problem is that one is supposed to be able to carry over charitable contributions that are not taken and accumulate them to eventually itemize.  To do that, one should file the 8283 in the federal return, even if you take the standard deduction.

I have noticed that no one from turbotax has responded to your thread, nor has anyone responded to my thread with the same issue. This is very poor support not to even acknowledge that there is an issue.  That to me suggests that turbotax will not fix this, if ever.

I will be calling them to ask.

[whodiini]

Oh, I read the prior response by the tax expert: "If you enter your Charitable Donations in your Federal Return (even if you are not itemizing), TurboTax should generate form 8283 for you."

I can verify that turbotax desktop mac 2021 does NOT efile nor print 8283. It does no good for turbotax to create a form that cannot be efiled.  The way to print 8283 is to switch to itemize, and print it.  If you then switch back to standard deduction, 8283 is not efiled.

[Taxd2]

This is still happening in the 2022 version.  If you don't have enough to itemize on your federal return but do on your Alabama return, form 8283, required for non-cash charitable contributions over $500, does not populate.  I gave up and removed those contributions since they did not make a large difference but it is a shame that Turbotax cannot fix an issue that has apparently been a problem since at least 2019.  If you want to claim your deductions, the only avenue is to act as if you are itemizing on federal, print form 8283, correct it back to the standard deduction, and then print and file your AL taxes along with the form. Sad.

[whodiini]

I also verify that the same problem exists for 2022.  I think it is just a problem that turbotax doesnt want to fix because it affects so few people.  Whereas I noticed that the state form prints out federal schedule A even though federal does not print out schedule A if you take the standard deduction.  So turbotax could easily fix this issue just like they fixed the schedule A issue with a few minutes of work, but they dont care. 

Well that means I cannot file my state electronically, and turbotax doesnt get my $ for state filing. That is called a lose-lose decision.