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jefem
New Member

Special $300 chartitable contribution deduction for 2020 has not reduced my tax bill-should be about $72 for someone in a 24% tax bracket. I am taking standard deduction

 
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3 Replies
BillM223
Employee Tax Expert

Special $300 chartitable contribution deduction for 2020 has not reduced my tax bill-should be about $72 for someone in a 24% tax bracket. I am taking standard deduction

Is there the $300 in line 10b on the 1040? This is a two-step process that is not obvious, so perhaps you need to review what you did.

 

Please read the following:

 

For 2020, Congress has changed tax law to permit the deduction of certain charitable contributions “above the line”, even if the taxpayer is taking the Standard Deduction otherwise. The new deduction will appear on line 10b on the 1040.

 

There are restrictions: the contribution must be in cash or cash-equivalent and it cannot exceed $300 for most filing statuses (exception: $150 for Married Filing Separate).

 

To enter this deduction, you must enter the charitable contributions as if you were going to itemize these contributions (do a Search (upper right) for charitable contributions and click on the jump-to result). Be sure to indicate that the contribution was “Money” or else TurboTax will not ask about it later.

 

Note that you do not need to enter any other charitable contributions if you are not planning to itemize.

 

Then, in the Federal Review at the end of your data entry, TurboTax will realize that you are taking the Standard Deduction and ask you to enter the amount of the charitable contribution that was in cash. Note the limits described above ($300 or $150); in the desktop product, at least, if you enter an amount larger than this, you will be asked to reduce it to the limit when you enter the amount.

 

When you enter the cash-based charitable contribution this way, the result will appear on line 10b on the 1040 as an above-the-line deduction.

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Laura2223
Returning Member

Special $300 chartitable contribution deduction for 2020 has not reduced my tax bill-should be about $72 for someone in a 24% tax bracket. I am taking standard deduction

This is very clunky.  Why can't you just simply enter the donations into the charitable donations for an itemizer and have that carryover to line 10b automatically.  A simple programming should fix this.  Very hard to follow.

BillM223
Employee Tax Expert

Special $300 chartitable contribution deduction for 2020 has not reduced my tax bill-should be about $72 for someone in a 24% tax bracket. I am taking standard deduction

The issue is that TurboTax needed to know two things: Did you have cash donations and are you taking the Standard Deduction.

 

TurboTax doesn't know if you taking the Standard Deduction until you are finished entering data and are reviewing your return.

 

Otherwise, we would run the risk that you entered an amount for the line 10b deduction and because of some change you made, you were no longer eligible. This would not be caught unless you went through the Review again, so why not do it all at once?

 

Clunky? Yes, it's tax.

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