Leave the box blank in the Charitable Cash Contributions under Cares Act screen.
The key is the sequencing of the entry in posting cash donations made and having TurboTax recalculate your tax breaks. Anything listed in the Cares Act section before first being entered as a deduction will produce unexpected results.
To qualify for the Cares Act above-the-line deduction up to $300 for all taxpayers except married filing separate, who would each have a maximum of $150, for standard deduction filers, the IRS clarifies that the contribution must be:
- a cash contribution;
- made to a qualifying organization;
- made during the calendar year 2020
To do this in TurboTax CD/Download, go to Deductions & Credits and select I'll choose what I work on.
- First, enter in the charitable donation amount as you normally would in the Charitable Donations section of Deductions & Credits.
- When finished entering all donations, select Done with Charitable Donations and Continue.
- Scroll to the end of the Deductions & Credits page and select Done with Deductions.
- You may need to respond to any other additional questions, but eventually see: The Standard Deduction is Right for You!
- Click Continue.
- At Charitable Cash Contributions under Cares Act, you should see any qualified contribution amount already entered from your earlier posts. If you have entered something here, delete it. Select Continue. TurboTax will automatically calculate this amount for you. If there is an amount entered by the system, there is not need to adjust it. Proceed through the rest of the interview.
- Run the review again.
This should clear the error.
For more information, see IRS Charitable Contributions Deductions.
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