carryover cash charity

[T K]

Hello,

I made charity contributions in the past five years but I was taking standard deduction. For 2022 I am doing itemization, Can I carryover the cash charity donations I mad in the past five years to 2022?

My income is more than 100k, does that make a difference? Also this is for California US

[HelenC12]

No, you can't take the previous five (5) years charitable contributions on your current tax return if you claimed the Standard Deduction in prior years. The reason you were able to claim the standard deduction was because your itemized deductions (which included charitable contributions) were less so the standard deduction resulted in a bigger refund or less of an amount due.

If you had itemized your deductions in prior years, you may have been limited to the amount you would have been able to claim. 

• The amount you can deduct for charitable contributions is generally limited to no more than 60% of your AGI. 
• Your deduction may be further limited to 50%, 30%, or 20% of your AGI, depending on the type of property you give and the type of organization you give it to. 
• The temporary 100% limit available for 2020 and 2021 for certain qualified cash contributions no longer applies. 
• For 2022, your deduction for cash contributions is limited to 60% of your AGI minus your deductions for all other contributions. 
• These limits are described in detail in this section. 
• Your AGI is the amount on Form 1040 line 11.

Regarding California:

No, generally, you can't take prior year deductions in the current year. Please check your previous CA tax returns to see if you used the standard deduction or if you itemized your CA deductions. You may have itemized your deductions in prior years.

• If you claimed the Standard Deduction on your federal return, you can still itemize your deductions on the California return. 
• However, you must complete the Itemized Deductions section of the federal return (Schedule A).

[T K]

Thanks for your reply but I see in turbo tax help that even if I took standard deduction for previous years, I can still use the charity when I don itemization. Please check the picture below

So I am confused now what should be done?!

[AbrahamT]

Yes, you are correct. Excess contributions can be carried forward even if the standard deduction is used in the contribution year. If the taxpayer claims the standard deduction in any of the carryover years, the carryover amount is reduced by the amount that would have been deductible if itemizing. (Reg. §1.170A-10)    Example: Susan’s 2016 AGI is $6,000. She donates $3,100 to a 50% charity. Susan claims the standard deduction in 2016. If she had itemized deductions, she would have been allowed to deduct $3,000 of her contribution ($6,000 × 50%) and would have carried over the excess $100. Susan carries forward the $100 excess contribution to 2017 even though she claimed the standard deduction in 2016.   

[T K]

Thanks Abraham for your replay.

So from your example, If Susan donated 2500 ( which is less than 6000 * 50%) then there is no carry over  she can claim in 2017, right?

[Vanessa A]

Correct.  If she donated less than what she could claim, then there is no carry over.

Basically, to claim a donation from 5 years ago on a return now, it would have had to be substantial enough that every year the amount you were allowed to take did not wipe out the entire donation.  Each year that you did not itemize you still would calculate the amount you would have used if you would have itemized and deduct that from what you donated to arrive at what is left to deduct.