Charity Donation Section is confusing due to add. of Hurricane Relief section. I entered all my donations and then prompted to enter HR - which duplicated the deduction.

[xmasbaby0]

That page is confusing.  Do not enter the donation twice.

[mesquitebean · Accepted solution]

That screen allows people to waive the normal charitable donation limit (50% of AGI) for qualified hurricane disaster relief and deduct up to 100% of AGI if their hurricane contribution qualifies with the rules.  And it eliminates the itemized- deduction phaseout for those qualified contributions that otherwise occurs when AGI passes a certain threshold.    TurboTax confusingly makes it look like the average user who contributed anything at all to hurricane relief should say "yes" there, but when one enters the amount on the next screen, it does double the donation amount that was entered previously; i.e., double-dipping.  

This has been reported to TurboTax so they can hopefully tone that screen up with clear instructions and avoid the double-dipping.    They have not yet responded with a recommendation for users on how to handle that. so it may be a while.  I would suggest skipping for now and returning to that donation section later after that section is updated.

If TurboTax puts out a containment FAQ on what to do for now, I'll post it in this thread.

On that screen in question, click on the blue "Learn More" link to see more info on that hurricane disaster relief topic.

[mesquitebean]

@matthewrrogers
Additional info has been added to the above answer.  If you were emailed the original answer, please return to the forum to see the full info.

[GregCoben]

The problem is two-fold.  Using either It's Deductible or Step-By-Step in addition to a manual entry at Line 16 of Schedule A does indeed duplicate the deduction.  The problem is that TurboTax has not been updated so that disaster relief donations flow to the "100% limit" column on the "Charity Contributions Summary" form. There are two workarounds depending on the situation:
1.  If your return is not subject to the 50% limit on charitable deductions, then enter the donation in the usual way and DO NOT use Line 16 of Schedule A.
2.  If your return is subject to the 50% limit on charitable deductions, then enter the total at Line 16 of Schedule A and DO NOT enter the donation using It's Deductible or Step-By-Step.