Itsdeductible being discontinued.. WHAT???

[JimGr]

I decided to go back to TurboTax Deluxe and examine the options for adding charitable item donations. Options are:
1. import from ItsDeductible

2. manual entry - values using ItsDeductible - similar to entry on the ItsDeductible web site

3. manual entry - values entered directly

So not only is TurboTax discontinuing the ItsDeductible web tool, but they will probably remove the item valuation using ItsDeductible for manual entry and the resulting concise representation of multiple item donations by charity and date.

You'll be left with entering:

charity name and address - entered once per charity

date of donation, item description, and value - entered separately for each separate date/item pair

There does not seem to be any mechanism for entering multiple items for a single donation date, so you're left with a long list of date/item pairs for each charity. With ItsDeductible, whether imported or entered manually, each charity has a list of donation dates, each of which contains a list of items with valuations and quantities.

[Critter-3]

You can use the term VARIOUS HOUSEHOLD, VARIOUS CLOTHING, etc and make a group entry ... that is what I have been doing for decades. 

[JimGr]

Critter-3

Thanks for the suggestion.

Is your approach to keep your own record of individual items and valuations for justification to the IRS and only enter a limited number of summary items with generic descriptions into TurboTax for each charity/date pair?

[Critter-3]

Yes it is ... the computer program (nor the IRS) does  not care if you enter in one form or a 100 ... you only need more detailed records if you are ever audited.  

[TaxesWhyMe]

To clarify some points here:

1.) We're dissatisfied that they are ending ItsDeductible mid-year for the 2022 year, not 2021. I think those concerned here have all filed 2021 already.  The annoyance is that TT led us to believe ItsDeductible would be available for the full 2022 tax season, (by their act of opening 2022 for input).

2.) There are over 2,000 views on the thread. Does that mean 2,000 individuals have read it? Idk how TT counts views, but not everyone reading it will comment. It's unreasonable to expect every single TT user/ or reader of the thread will comment on this.  

3.) Even if I only input the whole dollar amount for Salvation army. ie. $323 for clothes. I still need that backup of how I got to $323 in case I get audited. That was the beauty behind ItsDeductible, it told me $323. Saved me time on looking up all the costs. I save the detailed pdf for backup, along with my receipts and handwritten lists/ pics.

4.) TT is spending more effort on making sure I get every email from this community thread, and informing me of how many badges or kudos I've earned.  If they spent that much effort on telling folks about ItsDeductible, we'd be talking a different story here. (yes I know those are alerts and can be turned off, just saying...). 

I guess some of us are detail-oriented and loved this tool for that. An accountant once did our taxes and wanted to cap our itemized donations at 5k or something, (even though I had lists/ back up for more), because it was easier for him. 

[Hoov]

Good suggestion.  I plan to keep loading items in itsdeductible until Mid October and then print it all off.  When I do my taxes I will use your suggestion to use various dates, various goods, and various clothing for each of the charities I donate stuff to.  For money, I will use various dates to make one entry.  That should make it much easier than adding each date and listing items.  I will still have to add in the addresses of each charity which is a pain because itsdeductible had all of that information preloaded for each subsequent year.

[JimGr]

You may be out of luck. I just went to ItsDeductible and the "Add" buttons for 2022 don't exist. I guess that's TurboTax's approach to preventing disappointment at entering data for 2022 and then not being able to use it for anything. If you've already added entries for 2022, I recall a posting indicating that downloading of those may no longer work.

[mjclemente]

So, so disappointed with this decision. Every year at tax time I find the app so useful. I'd even pay a small fee to use it.

[Hoov]

After seeing your message, I went to the itsdeductible website,  and not only was I unable to add more items but I was informed that I could save data entered until October 18, 2022.

There was also a blue note called View Summaries. I only was able to download one summary and that was the item summary. The other summaries were not able to be downloaded.  The summaries are missing the charities' addresses so now I have to get that.

The support page link shown at the bottom of the information takes you to a page that describes how to download the data, but when I tried to download the Money pdf and the Mileage pdf., they did not work.  

I was able to download 4 pages of item donations and for the rest of the year, I plan to make up a spreadsheet to document these donations in addition to the individual donation receipts.

The Charity and Schedule C tax forms take up the majority of my time when preparing my taxes and now without itsdeductible filling out the Charity forms will now take up most of my tax filing time no thanks to Intuit.

[billyd_53214]

I feel your pain and this actin by TT is absolutely indefensible.

I was able to print the summaries and the addresses do appear.

[Hoov]

You are right, I did get a pdf with the addresses of all of my charities, both Items and Money.  Still, my money amounts did not show up.

[billyd_53214]

My money amounts do show. I am far from tech savvy so wish I could help but I can’t. I hope someone fro. Intuit is reading these messages. I suspect they represent only the tip of the iceberg.

[Anonymous]

I absolutely agree.  I've been using it yearly for more than a decade, and track literally hundreds of donations. 

Why, indeed, cut the support before end of year?  After years of using TurboTax, unless they reconsider, I'm going to the competition.

[Anonymous]

nope...and there's nothing else available that matches it's deductible

[Anonymous]

as level 15, you're definitely NOT a disinterested 3rd party