topic CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction in Deductions & credits

CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

JTK — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 21:01:16 GMT

Under the CARES Act, individual taxpayers can claim an "above-the-line" deduction of up to $300 for cash donations made to charity during 2020.

I'm getting a jump-start on my taxes this year, using TurboTax Home & Business (Mac). My charitable contributions (cash donations all and entered as "Money" in TurboTax) are listed on the Form 1040/1040SR Worksheet under line 10 (linked to the Charitable Contributions Summary, as expected). However, line 10b on the worksheet, "Charitable contributions if you take the standard deduction" is blank and shaded yellow. Similarly, line 10b on my Form 1040 is blank. I'm using the standard deduction, so I expected to be able to take a $300 deduction. Needless to say, the program is not factoring this deduction into my tax calculation.

Is this a bug? Have I entered something incorrectly?

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

macuser_22 — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 21:13:17 GMT

No, it is not bug, but TurboTax cannot determine if you will have other deductions to itemize so until the deductions & credits section is totally finishes and TurboTax tells you that the standard deduction is correct for you, it will not show up on the 1040.

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

JTK — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 21:22:57 GMT

Thanks!

I navigated through all of the "Deductions & Credits" sections, and then it confirmed that I should be using the standard deduction, and it updated the CARES Act charitable deduction properly.

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

garrich2842 — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 19:50:44 GMT

Please allow me to say It is a bug. I'm not itemizing. When running the federal smart check. it identifies that I need to enter an amount if I chose to itemize. I enter manually typing over the red numbers the number 300.00 save the file. It still flags it as an error to be fixed. I have also clicked on the + sign then enter a description and enter the 300.00 again. It autofills the total as 300.00. I save the file, run the smart check and it flags it as an error again. Please know I'm running on Windows 10.TurboTax version 2020.0. Ive gotten the latest updates today Feb 2 2021.

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

JamesG1 — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 15:48:22 GMT

This TurboTax Help states:

For 2020, even if you don’t itemize, you may take a charitable deduction of up to $300 for cash contributions made in 2020 to qualified organizations.

I was able to enter and successfully Review in TurboTax Desktop by following these steps:

Across the top of the screen, click on Federal Taxes.
Click on Deductions & Credits.
At the screen How do you want to enter your deductions and credits?, click on I’ll choose what I work on.
Across the top of the screen Your 2020 Deductions & Credits, scroll down to the bottom and click Done with deductions.
Continue until the screen Charitable Cash Contributions under CARES Act.
Enter your charitable cash contribution. If you enter more than $300 (for a Single taxpayer), your deduction will be capped at $300..
Click Continue.
Click Done with Other.
Across the top of the screen, click Review, then Continue.
After Review is complete, click Step-by-Step in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
Select Form 1040 in the left hand column to review the entry on line 10b of the 1040.

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

Leigh2727 — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 16:50:54 GMT

I was struggling finding this on the desktop version - but this worked, the question was after being told they were using the standard deduction and then clicking next to "Other" - so thank you for that detailed step-by-step! Much Appreciated!

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

VikingEric — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 18:48:46 GMT

I still think there is a bug here. It accepts an entry of $600 for married filing jointly, but does not update 1040 10b correctly. Seems to max out at $300.

Charitable donations: The 2020 CARES Act created a $300 above-the-line deduction for cash charitable donations for 2020 tax filers who don’t itemize deductions. The CAA increased this to $600 for married couples, and extended the deduction through 2021.

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

DoninGA — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 18:54:25 GMT

@VikingEric wrote:

I still think there is a bug here. It accepts an entry of $600 for married filing jointly, but does not update 1040 10b correctly. Seems to max out at $300.

Charitable donations: The 2020 CARES Act created a $300 above-the-line deduction for cash charitable donations for 2020 tax filers who don’t itemize deductions. The CAA increased this to $600 for married couples, and extended the deduction through 2021.

The maximum above the line charitable contribution for tax year 2020 is $300. For tax year 2021 the maximum will be $600 if filing as Married Filing Jointly.

IRS Form 1040 (2020) Instructions page 29 - https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf#page=29

Line 10b
If you don't itemize deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040), you (or you and your spouse if filing jointly) may be able to take a charitable deduction for cash contributions made in 2020.
Enter the total amount of your contributions on line 10b. Don't enter more than:
• $300 if single, head of household, or qualifying widow(er);
• $300 if married filing jointly; or
• $150 if married filing separately

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

VikingEric — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 19:16:48 GMT

Thank you for the quick response. OMG, could this be any more confusing. I read the link below and it clarified things for me.

CARES Act 2020 Charity Donation Deduction: $300 or $600 for Married? (thefinancebuff.com)

Thank You

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

AP35 — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 02:39:10 GMT

There seems to be a bug. I took the standard deduction and entered the $300 under the Charitable Cash Contributions under Cares Act section but at final review prior to filing, an error continues to appear saying the Charitable Cash Contributions section needs to be fixed, the amount is too large? Thanks for any help!

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

DawnC — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 03:12:08 GMT

What amount is showing on the review page? The max is $300. Try this:

Get out of the Review portion by clicking on Federal in the left side panel
Click on Deductions & Credits at the top
Scroll all the way down and click on Wrap Up Tax Breaks
Click on OK to confirm your standard deduction
On the next screen, enter your cash contribution - Max is $300 no matter what your filing status is
Continue through until go start the Review section again

@AP35

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

AP35 — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 04:21:41 GMT

Thanks for the quick response! $300 is showing on the review page. So I'm not sure why it keeps showing 'amount too large'?

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

ReneeM7122 — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 15:21:23 GMT

The workaround is to delete the $300 in the error check. Then go back to Deductions & Credits and enter the contribution there, in the Donations to Charity topic. Then click Done with Donations and proceed through the screens until you get to the screen that tells you that TurboTax has added in the contribution.

The contribution will be back on Form 1040 line 10b, but it won't be flagged as an error. It only gets flagged if you enter it when prompted after you finish Deductions & Credits and the software tells you that you are getting the standard deduction. It will not get flagged if you enter it in Donations to Charity.

Please try the following workaround:

Delete the $300 in the error check.
Then go back to Deductions & Credits and enter the contribution there, in the Donations to Charity topic.
Click Done with Donations and proceed through the screens until you get to the screen that tells you that TurboTax has added in the contribution.

The contribution should appear on Form 1040 line 10b.

@AP35

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

marjoriehilts — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 17:55:41 GMT

I believe I have found a bug in TurboTax. 1040SR line 10B should be $600 for married filing jointly. It auto fills only $300, however, the IRS has stated the above-the-line deduction is a per person deduction. How can I fix this error? Thanks.

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

DoninGA — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 18:04:35 GMT

@marjoriehilts wrote:

I believe I have found a bug in TurboTax. 1040SR line 10B should be $600 for married filing jointly. It auto fills only $300, however, the IRS has stated the above-the-line deduction is a per person deduction. How can I fix this error? Thanks.

There is no error. The maximum for tax year 2020 is $300.

Go to the IRS Form 1040 (2020) Instructions for Line 10b on page 29 - https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf#page=29

Line 10b
If you don't itemize deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040), you (or you and your spouse if filing jointly) may be able to take a charitable deduction for cash contributions made in 2020.
Enter the total amount of your contributions on line 10b. Don't enter more than:
• $300 if single, head of household,
or qualifying widow(er);
• $300 if married filing jointly; or
• $150 if married filing separately

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

AP35 — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 16:38:21 GMT

That worked! Thank you so much @ReneeM7122!!

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

ReneeM7122 — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 19:57:05 GMT

You are welcome @AP35!

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

Gregoire — Sat, 27 Feb 2021 19:20:14 GMT

My issue is that when we filed my wife's return (MFS) we entered 1/2 of our charitable donation for the year (way over $300) and it gave her the $300 donation on line 10b, as it should. However, when I do exactly the same thing on my MFS return, it limits my 10b amount to $150 and doesn't show up in an error check. Thoughts?

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

Neepohos — Sat, 27 Feb 2021 19:57:08 GMT

Short version. Verify that your charitable donations section is completely blank and didn't autofill from other years/areas, or that your totals match it. Itemize your charitable donations, even if you're taking the standard deduction, and then use that total, or $300, whichever is less.

Longer Explanation
I spent some time on the phone with a Turbotax employee before I figured this out. My issue was I had charitable donations that were itemized automatically from my 2019 state return ($17, it was a tiny return so we just donated all of it). When the system itemized these automatically I didn't know because I honestly had forgotten about them and knew I hadn't made sufficient charitable donations to matter above the standard deduction. I never opened that section this year at all. When the special CARES question about charitable donations came I did mark down the charitable donations I had an easy way to track from an online source, which was around $125. So I entered that. I then kept getting the error message saying that was too large. However when we blanked the box completely and came back to look at it the number 17 kept appearing. Finally when I went to look at itemized charity donations it had the donations from my state returns last year. That explained the random 17 that kept showing up. When I added my other 125 to it as an itemized donation and closed it I still got an error saying the line wasn't right. However this time I added the appropriate total (142) and that solved the problem.

Re: CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

pokerholm — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 07:20:06 GMT

I realized that TurboTax Premier did not import my charitable contributions from ItsDeductible. The bug in TurboTax seems to be within the buckets it asks you've donated in. I had selected "1-1600" so TurboTax was able to calculate that I need the standard deduction, but it was not able to fill out the 1040 correctly.

I had to do a search for "itsdeductible" to get into the question by question section and find the option to import my data. Once I did that, i ran the error check and got an error on 10b, not the line to the left. I entered $300 there and it finally (after an hour of this nonsense) accepted my taxes.