Is the turbotax system updated to account for the $300 charitable deductions under the CARES Act for those who take the standard deduction?

[spcoorlas]

This method had not worked for me. After days of fiddling with manually entering the $300 in my 1040 and the program not responding correctly, I opted to mail-in printed versions. Very upsetting, especially to pay for this service and to not have the benefit of e-filing. 

[Milan Travalia]

The charitable deduction under the Cares act is $600 for couples, but only $300 shows up on tax form

[DoninGA]

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@Milan Travalia wrote:

The charitable deduction under the Cares act is $600 for couples, but only $300 shows up on tax form

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The charitable deduction for Married Filing Jointly is $300 in tax year 2020

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf#page=29

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.

[Jamesnielsen18]

Thanks - Bringing up from 1040 and going to line 10b and entering the amount works.

[Onefish]

This probably just a nit, but when we're able to itemize it would still be advantageous to have the $300 above-the-line-deduction taken as such. The lower the AGI the more some itemized deductions increase. Is moving the $300 to a below-the-line deduction an IRS thing or a TT oversight?

[VolvoGirl]

Sorry it's either the Standard Deduction + the 300 or your total Itemized Deductions (which include charity).

[Sandy-M]

Thank You!! This worked perfectly 🙂

[Trishbk]

Premier for 2021 tax year has a bug. I take the standard deduction and after entering $650 cash for charitable donations, it did not lower my overall federal and state tax liability. 

[GregCoben]

@Trishbk take a look at the form "1040/1040SR Wks."  At line 12b there is a place for you to manually enter the maximum "non-itemized charitable deduction" that applies, i.e., either $600 for married filing jointly, or $300 for everything else.  The field just to the left and slightly above should reflect your total amount of charitable contributions.  The purpose of line 12b is to enter the smaller of the two amounts.  I don't know why this is not automated within TurboTax, but I will guess that it is still early in the tax year and they haven't gotten around to it yet.

[BillM223]

If you are using the Online product, please look on the left for Tax Tools, then Tools right below that, then click on View Tax Summary in the center. Then, back to the left, please click on Preview my 1040.

Scroll down through the 1040 to line 12b. Is there a number here?

Last year, you had to trigger the $300 cash contribution in the Review, but this year, I just entered a charitable contribution of $700, and it was automatically limited to $600 and transferred to 12b without doing anything else.

Take a look at line 12b and see what is there.

@Trishbk

[texybaby1956]

Why won't your software allow the $300.oo charity deduction when I take a standard deduction ( see Line12 and 12A on form 1040.  The only explanation I can find is Turbo Tax suggests you don't take the $300 deduction.  Turbo tax is taking the lazy way out (don't fix your software and tell you clients to forget this

deduction.  I thought you guaranteed the maximum refund.  Not true huh?

You just lost a customer and all the fiends he will tell.

[jeb605]

I found it on my forms.  I selected the 1040 from the forms list.  Scroll down to line 12b, then move to the right to the space just to the right of where you see  12b in the middle of the page, then click on that space.  It will take you to the 1040 worksheet and should bring you right to the point on that screen to input 300.  It is 12b again and should be highlighted in yellow.  Once you put the 300 in this space, it carries it through to the main 1040 page and should recalculate your tax or refund amount.  It did for me, and I have not yet filled in all the pages yet.  I did this to see if it would work, and it seems to at this point.

[dshropy]

I am using TurboTax Home and Business 2021, for married filing jointly. I do not see any screen that asked or told me specifically about the $300 deduction, no matter how many times I go through it all. The screen "[Names], Here are Your 2020 and 2021 Deductions & Credits," in the 2021 column, lists Charitable Cash Contributions as $600. But the Total Deductions (in that same screen) does not include this amount - it is only the Standard Deduction amount. However, when I go to the 1040 form, line 12b, it says $600. And line 12c is the total of the Standard Deduction plus $600.

So, two questions: (1) Is $600 the correct amount? I thought it was supposed to be only $300. (2) Why is there no step-by-step screen that discusses this deduction, and even the screen mentioned above doesn't seem to add it into the Total Deductions.

Very confusing! Please fix this software bug, as I would like to finish my taxes this week, thanks.

[DoninGA]

If you are getting the Standard Deduction then the charitable Cash Donation you can enter is up to $600 if filing as Married Filing Jointly and is up to $300 for any other filing status.

[jpatul]

using Deluxe download; I have more than $600 charitable deductions (MFJ) and entered them. frustrating cuz they show up on Sch A but did not how up as a Cares Act deduction. finally, figured it out - at the end of Deductions/Credit, you must chose "done with credits". then TT says you would be bettter with SD and once you say fine, the Cares Act donations are filled in