I am not sure why it does not accept 0. As my charitable contributions..line 10b. It will not let me process. Any suggestions?

[DanaB27]

Please try to leave the field blank.

This year you can claim $300 as an adjustment to income (line 10b) if you made a cash contributions to a charitable organization, while claiming the Standard Deduction.

Please follow these steps to enter the charitable cash contribution for 10b :

1. Login to your TurboTax Account 
2. Click "Federal" from the left side of your screen
3. Click “Deductions &Credits” on the top
4. Scroll all the way down and click the "Wrap up tax breaks" button
5. Continue until the "Charitable Cash Contributions under Cares Act" screen
6. Enter your charitable cash contributions.

[mbreagan]

I am having the same problem; however, I do not have the "Wrap Up Tax Breaks" button at the bottom. I can't find where to adjust my inputs to get this info to flow properly.  I don't understand why this doesn't automatically flow through based on how I input my charitable contributions- if it was a cash donation it should flow through here and it does not.  Please explain where I need to change my input to flow through properly.  On the review of return- it comes up as "an unacceptable value".  I've tried to manually input my cash donations and it stills says unacceptable value.  

[Irene2805]

Do not enter zeroes for charitable contributions (or most other fields in TurboTax).  Just leave them blank.

If you originally made an entry for charitable contributions but now want to remove it, go through the interview for charitable deductions and delete the figure you entered.  Then, you can check your list of forms to see if the Charitable Organization worksheet has been removed.

In order to take a deduction for your charitable donations if you are taking the standard deduction, there is an extra step to take in addition to entering the figure in charitable donations.  Please follow these steps:

1. After entering your deductions, at the bottom of the screen click the Wrap up Tax Breaks box [Done with Deductions in CD/Download version].
2. After a few screens, you will see a screen telling you which method is right for you -- standard or itemized deduction. 
3. If you are taking the standard deduction, after that screen you will see a Charitable Cash Contributions under Cares Act.  [See screenshot below.]  Enter the amount of your charitable contribution in the box (up to $300).  Click Continue.

@mbreagan

[mbreagan]

Following your instructions, I get to the part where it explains that the itemized deduction is better then the standard deduction but the standard deduction is actually the one that turbo tax is using so therefore it makes sense why it's not asking the further questions related to Charitable Cash Contributions under Cares Act.  So now the problem is why is turbo tax saying the itemized deduction is the best option but it is using the standard deduction in the return.

[ReneeM7122]

This is due to a new provision in the CARES Act.   Previously, charitable contributions could only be deducted if taxpayers itemized their deductions.

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. The law changed in this area due to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

When you are itemizing, the workaround is to make the software stop treating you as an itemizer, which it must in order to get this $300 credit for you.  Here's what to do:

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. 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.

@mbreagan