Gifts to charity -- can I skip the date box and simply put down $500 and move on like in the past turbo tax versions?

Was this a cash gift--you are supposed to get receipts for cash donations to charity, and it should have been dated.

Thanks!  No, not cash but clothing, footwear, computer, office stuff...

Usually Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc give dated receipts, too.  Or did you use a drop box where there would be no receipt?

No. TurboTax will not let you skip the date. If you don't know it or don't want to bother entering multiple dates, use 12/31/16 or the one date you do have documented. Either way, form 8283 will be generated and the IRS wants dates