CARES Act charitable donation with standard deduction

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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!

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.

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@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.

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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

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

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! 

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

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

@AP35

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

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: 

1. Delete the $300 in the error check.
2. Then go back to Deductions & Credits and enter the contribution there, in the Donations to Charity topic.
3. 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

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.

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@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.

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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

That worked! Thank you so much @ReneeM7122!!

You are welcome @AP35!

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?

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.

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.

as i understand the info on instructions for fed 1040...i had  a 1500.00 actual donation to charity...whaat is the amount that will be calculated for 10B  

Previously, charitable contributions could only be deducted if taxpayers itemized on their tax returns.   However, taxpayers who don't itemize deductions may take a charitable deduction of up to $300 for cash contributions made in 2020 to qualifying organizations. For the purposes of this deduction, qualifying organizations are those that are religious, charitable, educational, scientific or literary in purpose.

I was helping my Mom with her taxes. It was a joint return Turbo Tax Deluxe. The Charitable deduction screen ask how much of the $300.00 was hers so since she pays all of it but its on there joint income. My concern is we completed and submitted but now she reads in the news paper its $300 per person, so $600 for 2 people. I did not see how to add $300 for both. Please comment.

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@cyacklon wrote:
I was helping my Mom with her taxes. It was a joint return Turbo Tax Deluxe. The Charitable deduction screen ask how much of the $300.00 was hers so since she pays all of it but its on there joint income. My concern is we completed and submitted but now she reads in the news paper its $300 per person, so $600 for 2 people. I did not see how to add $300 for both. Please comment.

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The maximum cash donation is $300 for tax year 2020.

Go to the IRS Form 1040 Instructions (2020) 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.

this $300 charitable donation simply does not work in TurboxTax.  Even if you follow the advice above, and actually get around the error message telling you the amount is too big, it does NOT make any adjustment to your tax due.  Thus I conclude, it is indeed a bug.