topic Charity donation in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Charity donation

BastaPa — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 08:41:04 GMT

I made a $600 Cash donation to a charity.

I entered this in TurboTax; and it shows that $0 is deductible.

I looked up Charity Donations on the IRS.GOV site, and it says that "up to $300 of cash donations are deductible".

I checked with a friend of mine also using TurboTax, with a much lower income than mine, and the same thing happened to her.

Is this a glitch in TurboTax?

Patrick

Re: Charity donation

JamesG1 — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 17:33:19 GMT

Not sure what was happening. Was the charitable contribution reported as a 'cash' contribution?

Federal 1040 line 12b Charitable Cash Contributions under CARES Act can be entered or removed at either:

Federal Taxes / Deductions & Credits / Your tax breaks / Donations to Charity in 2021 or
at the screen Charitable Cash Contributions under CARES Act immediately following Based on what you just told us, the Standard Deduction is best for you.

But the second entry appears to produce better results.

Remove the entries at Donations to Charity in 2021 by deleting the entries.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Wrap up tax breaks.
You will see the screen Based on what you just told us, the Standard Deduction is best for you.
At the screen titled Charitable Cash Contributions under the CARES Act, make sure that the box contains the amount of the deduction for which you qualify.
At Other Tax Situations, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Let’s keep going.
Continue through Review.

Go to Tax Tools / Tools / View Tax Summary / Preview my 1040 to view line 12b for the charitable deduction.

Re: Charity donation

BastaPa — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 18:38:02 GMT

JamesG1:

Thank you for your detailed instructions, but I could not follow them. Here is what I did:

- following your guidance, I removed my "donations to charity", i.e., $600. Here is the impact: 1 - my tax liability went up, as I would have expected; but keep in mind that my "tax summary" had shown before that out of the $600 donation, $0 was deductible; and 2 - now, my tax summary showed $300 deductible from charity donations!!!

- then I looked for "Charitable Cash Contributions under the CARES Act" as you had mentioned. I could NOT find this. Looked in "Search", no success.

- so, I went back to "donations to charity" and re-entered my $600 "Money" donation. Here is the impact: 2 - my tax liability went down, as I would have expected, and 2 - my "tax summary" again shows that out of the $600 donation, $0 is deductible.

I really think that there is a glitch. Thank you. Patrick.

Re: Charity donation

DawnC — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 18:56:12 GMT

The tax summary is showing Itemized Deductions, which should be 0. If you are taking the standard deduction, the $300 or $600 will show up on Line 12b of Form 1040. Preview your tax return - Form 1040 (not the summary). Look on Line 12b and you should see the subtraction. What does that line show on your tax return?

This deduction is only for those that take the standard deduction. If you itemize, you can deduct more than the $300 or $600. After you've completed the Deductions & Credits section of TurboTax, we'll let you know which deduction gives you the biggest tax break. Once confirmed, TurboTax will put your allowed deduction in the correct spot on your tax return.

Re: Charity donation

BastaPa — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 19:31:33 GMT

Dawn:

Got it! I went to Form 1040, Line 12b - and the $300 is there!

Thank you. Patrick.