charitable deduction from California state tax refund

[pi314159]

California allows filers to donate to various charitable causes by reducing their refund. I did this in 2020 when filing my 2019 state tax return.  My 1099-G says I got the full refund without the reduction, so should I enter the reduction as a charitable donation? Two questions: (1) where in TurboTax do I enter this?  (2) I already have more than $300 deductions for donations, so would it make any difference?

[MaryM428]

If you are taking the standard deduction and already have more than $300 in charitable cash donations, then you are correct that adding another donation is not going to change your refund or amount owed.  If you are taking itemized deductions, then there would be an impact on your final amounts owed or due.

You would enter the donation in TurboTax using these steps"

Federal

Deductions and Credits

Charitable Donations

For 2020 you can claim up to $300 in cash donations to charity and that amount is added to your standard deduction.

"

[cwread]

My cash contributions in 2020 were much more than the $300 added to my standard federal deduction.  CA Franchise Tax board website says "California limits cash contributions to 50 percent of your federal AGI." That 50% is well more than my total cash contributions.  So, can i put the total cash contribution amount as "addition" to "charitable contributions" (the Federal $300 was subtracted out) in the "other CA adjustments to income" section, and get the full deduction for my cash donations?

[AmyC]

No, CA does not have a separate charity deduction. 

I believe you are saying you took the standard deduction on the federal and were only able to claim the $300 charity on federal. You did not give so much charity that you itemized on your federal return.

If you had itemized on the federal for charity, it would be on the state itemized.

The 50% limitation applies to your allowable charity deduction on itemized deductions for CA.

The $300 special charity write off this year is NOT allowed in CA and is being added to your income. You are not able to write off additional charity in CA. Read the screen again, the $300 charity is a subtraction that will increase your taxable income. 

@cwread

[cwread]

Hi, thx for reply.

No, we itemized our charity to the tune of over $9400.  But TurboTax said the standard deduction was best, as the feds limited our other deductions to just $10K (prop taxes in CA).  Franchise tax board advisor told me in chat that we could add the full cash deduction to our CA adjustments section.  We then filed.  Since then, I noted that TurboTax adjusted a piece of artwork DOWN in value, and when I corrected that, we now get a REFUND from CA, instead of owing.  So, we have to amend.  Arggh.

[Ron C]

So just to clarify in our specific situation.

We did not have enough deductions to itemize for federal. We made way more than the $300 in donations. I'm not sure if it it's enough itemize. 

If we take the standard deduction for federal does TurboTax online force the California state return to be filed with standard and no option to itemize state?

[Lamboom2]

Why should I have to answer the question?... shouldn't TurboTax answer the question?..  .. What are we paying TurboTax for, if not support?   All TurboTax does is say that the Fed or the State rejected a return... but say nothing meaningful about what might be wrong with the return(s)   Just a "category" where the error might be hiding...  Good luck hunting an answer here, in this forum ... It's like searching YouTube for a tutorial on how to fix anything.  50% is spotty at best .. but, sometimes, the answer can be found.

[ArmenK]

That's not true. CA does have a charitable deduction.  The question is where do you itemize w/in TT on the CA state return, it is very unclear.

[DianeW777]

You enter all of your deductions on the Federal side, and the CA return will use those itemized deductions if the total amount of itemized deductions exceed the CA standard deduction. 

You can review the allowed CA itemized deductions at the link below.

• CA Itemized Deductions

To determine what is on your return, you can view your tax summary.

1. From the menu on the left, click on Tax Tools
2. Choose Tools
3. Choose View Tax Summary
4. Again from the left, you can Preview my 1040 or CA Tax Summary for the state return
5. Scroll to the lines for deductions and view what is calculating on your return.
6. You will only be able to see summary totals only and not detail until you have paid for the software to pull the PDF of your return.

You can print or view your full tax return prior to filing after you have paid for the software.

• Down the left side of the screen, click on Tax Tools.
• Click on Print, save or preview this year’s return.