@bobski24 In most cases, it is better for one spouse to claim all the donations on their tax return., At the Federal level, the credit rate for the 1st $200 is only 15.00%, with any amount above that eligible for a higher credit rate. If both spouse claim the charitable donation credit, then the lower credit rate will be used for the 1st $400 of their donations. But if only one spouse takes the credit, then they will get the higher credit rate after only $200. Most provinces also have a similar tiered rate system, so for most provinces, it still makes sense for one spouse to claim all donations for the year.
There are cases when it's better to split the donations (ex: you live in a province that doesn't mimic the Federal credit, like Alberta), but unfortunately the existing optimizer doesn't always produce the best results in those cases. However, TurboTax is working on improving the Donations optimizer for future years.
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