Yes, you are correct. When itemizing deductions, and not claiming the standard deduction, the extra Cares Act donation deduction is not available.
1. To enter charitable donations in TurboTax Online, follow these steps:
- From the left menu, select Federal.
- Four tabs will appear across the top of your program. Select the second tab, Deductions & Credits.
- Scroll to Charitable Donations and select Start to begin.
- Answer Yes to Do you want to enter your donations for 2020?
- For each donation, follow these steps:
- Enter who the donation was to at Let's enter your donations one at a time and indicate what type of item was donated, either an Item, Money, Stock, or Mileage and travel expenses
- Follow the prompts from there, and enter the amount of the donation
- When finished, select Done with This Donation.
- Select + Add Another Donation if you have additional entries and Continue.
- Next, to trigger the extra deduction screen, run through all the deductions and credits and click Wrap Up Tax Breaks again to trigger the Cares Act Charitable Donation screen so that it will automatically calculate. Leave this cell blank. The information entered in the regular area will be calculated and the maximum allowable deduction will be added.
2. To do this in TurboTax CD/Download, follow these steps:
- Go to the PERSONAL tab and select the second button from the left, Deductions & Credits.
- Select I'll choose what I work on.
- 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. You will eventually see: The Standard Deduction is Right for You!
- Click Continue.
- Now, you will see Charitable Cash Contributions under Cares Act where you will see any qualified contribution amount already entered from your earlier posts. Leave this blank. Select Continue.
Do not enter anything more for the amount. If there is an amount prepopulated here, do not adjust it. Proceed through the rest of the interview.
Run the Review again. This should clear the error.
Keep in mind, the advantage to standard deduction filers was not the only provision for increasing charitable contributions from the Cares Act. Donations were allowed up to 100% of adjusted gross income, as well. For more information, see: Charitable Contribution Deductions | Internal Revenue Service
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