Can TurboTax staff fix the Donations Optimizer?

[rab135]

The "Charitable donation optimizer" does not work for couples who want to split their donations - except for the simplest of situations.  It seems the optimizer is based on the misconception that it is always best to commit all the donations to one spouse in order to avoid the $200 lower credit bracket.  However, this is definitely not the case for larger donors who need to distribute between spouses to lower taxes payable on both returns.  TurboTax is an admirable application in most regards but the "Charitable donation optimizer" is an embarrassment to an otherwise great app.  Is this something TurboTax staff could give a priority to in the next year's version?

[TurboTaxSusan]

Are you using TurboTax Desktop or TurboTax Online?

[rab135]

Desktop standard version. 

[TurboTaxSusan]

Yes, if you are using forms, TurboTax Desktop defaults to claiming all the donations on one return. However, you can over-ride the line that says "Amount claimed by your spouse or partner" on one of the spouses DON worksheet. This is one of the rare occasions where overriding will not stop you from NETFILEing. If you use EasyStep mode, it will actually ask you if you want to split the donations, and make the over-ride on the DON worksheet for you.
 

[rab135]

Thanks, Susan. That’s very helpful to know. It is, though, a concern that users are not more clearly warned that the optimizer may provide solutions that result in them paying more taxes than they should. In my case, if I had accepted the software’s optimization, we would have paid nearly $2,000 more than we needed to. Calculating the optimum amounts and distributing between spouses does not seem to be complicated.  Could you ask the development team to consider enhancing the optimizer to provide that option for next year?

[TurboTaxBrenda · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your feedback about the donation optimizer and yes we will bring your request forward to our engineers.

[nv8]

1. Have gone through the easy step questions and do NOT see the option to share donations.

2. Cannot override on the Don sheet as I could in previous years.

HELP!

[TurboTaxGinette]

Please see the image below for steps to get back to the Donations by using the Find icon at the top right and entering donations which will bring you to the screen shown below. You can also go back to Donations by using the menu on the left as indicated with the arrows.

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.

[nv8]

Oops...sorry.....was panicking....Forgot that to over ride i have to press F2.

[TurboTaxBrenda]

Glad to hear you got it working 🙂