What Am I Doing Wrong? Turbotax Deluxe Will Not Allow Charitable Donations.

[I Gotta Tell Ya]

Hello, Everyone, and thanks in advance for your advice.

I have been doing my own taxes for about ten years using Turbotax Deluxe. I am a teacher, but we also have a small business my wife and I run out of our home. We file jointly, as a married couple. 

We give a small tithe to our church monthly, $50 per month, totaling $600.00. 

I've gotten good enough with the program that I often go in and enter deductions and dollar amount like this directly in the Forms View, as opposed to the Step-by-Step View, but this time I used the Step-by-Step feature.

Normally, when I input a new, valid deduction the program automatically tallies our return and increases the refund amount, in green, at the top of the page once the item is completed and entered. It's not doing that right now. It just sits there. Any idea why?.

Thank You in advance for your help.

[AmyC]

Regardless of standard or itemized, with this year's above the line charity, you would see a few dollars unless your income has reached non-taxable. Once you no longer have taxable income, it does not matter how many deductions you add, the tax will not change.

[rjs]

The most likely explanation is that you have not yet entered enough other itemized deductions to make your total itemized deductions more than your standard deduction. An additional donation will not make any difference in your tax or refund until your total itemized deductions are more than your standard deduction.

Or you might not have enough itemized deductions to exceed your standard deduction. The standard deduction is pretty high now. A lot of people who used to itemize no longer do.

Is Schedule A in the list of active forms in your return? If not, you are using the standard deduction.

[I Gotta Tell Ya]

Ah, I think you're right. Thanks to the two of you for your insights. 

According to my research, the standard deduction for 2020 for married filing jointly is $24,800. I have not yet hit that threshold; however, we have a boatload of itemized deductions I have not yet entered into TT and they will likely push us above that number.

Thanks again. I'll post again once I've entered all our deductions and see what then happens to that $600 donation.

Be Well.