Charitable contributions deduction up to 100% of AGI for 2020

[thomaswreese]

Someone else gave me the way to fix this TT software error. After entering in all the contributions, click Continue. There is a question whether any of these organizations are subject to the 30% limit (and the question says this is rare). Even though the answer to this question is No, you must instead click on the Yes button. Then you get a dialog that lets you choose the deduction limit for each charity donated to, choosing between 60%, 50/100%, and 30%. This is extremely obscure, and I would not have found it without help. I hope that Turbotax fixes this software error.

[Telos]

This is fouled up beyond belief. I've had 4 rejections over charitable donations and no clear feedback. One of my donations involved appreciated stock and cash. I'm guessing I have to mark that as 50% vs 50%/100% as I'm unsure TT is smart enough to know cash is 100% and appreciated property is 50%. I'm guessing this fifth efile will be rejected and I'll be filing by paper. 

Of course there are "no errors" when TT runs its prefile scan.

Worst TT experience in 20 years.

[Cynthiad66]

 Yes. There is an issue with the contributions deduction and TurboTax is working to fix it.  We do not have an estimated date of correction, at this time.  I suggest you check back often to see if the correction has been made.

There is a problem with the Contributions section of the Itemized deductions and also the above the line $300.00 deduction.  Because of the many changes due to the CARES Act, IRS is still developing the forms and publications on this issue.  Last update was January 13th where everything is still in draft.  Once IRS finalizes the forms, we will be able to update TurboTax to accurately reflect your Contributions deduction.

Here are some of the changes due to the CARES ACT

The new legislation allows tax deductions on two types of charitable gifts. First, it allows up to $300 given to a qualified charity to be claimed as an above-the-line deduction. After the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which went into effect in 2018, increased the standard deduction, many taxpayers had less incentive to donate to charities. Instead, they took the standard deduction and stopped itemizing.

For taxpayers who will itemize deductions, the CARES Act effectively suspends the limit on deductions for cash contributions to public charities for 2020.  “That allows indiv

[PhylWith]

It is March 6th and this is still a problem in TT Deluxe.  I tried to force the 100% on the form but then TT changed it back if I edited anything in the interview screens.  The only way I was able to resolve this was to answer "Yes" to the 30% question, then I was able to pick the correct percentage for each charity.  To the TT peeps:  It seems this is a really easy fix in Turbo Tax... just delete the 30% question and go directly to the percentage screen since it would be good to be able to see this information for every donation in 2020 anyway.

Kudos to the people who figured out that answering "yes" to the 30% question was the workaround.

[Telos]

The problem is deeper than simply entering the percentages manually. For a given charity, sometimes the total donated amount is the sum of donations including cash donations, mileage, physical goods, and appreciated financial instruments. Unfortunately, only some of those are 100% donations, so it is impossible to pick a single classification for an organization, unless you make multiple entries for those organizations to which you donated both 50/60 items and 100% items.

TurboTax blew it badly this year and the charitable contributions sections needs a total rewrite (and it's too late for that). Oddly this is solved by competing tax softwares.

[DaveF1006]

No, everything is working fine within Turbo Tax. I did a test scenario in my program by entering a donation and I was able to claim 100% of the donation. Several things may cause the discrepancy. 

1. Perhaps you had other itemized deductions that zeroed out your entire AGI. If so, there may be a carryover or your itemized deductions for next year..
2. You can check this on line 14 of Schedule A.  if it says limited, it means you are not able to claim the entire deduction this year but will carryover into next year.
3. If this is the case, you will also have a Charity Limits worksheet in your list of forms underneath your donation. Line 28 of that form will show what is being carried over into next year. 
4. Perhaps your charity was not a qualified 100% charity. Please review this IRS link for more information.

[Edited 03-07-2021|12:17 AM PST]

[Telos]

Then, please explain this:

[DaveF1006]

It depends. What it means that most charitable donation is limited to a person's Adjusted Gross income for the year, usually 60% This year because of COVID 19, the IRS has extended the AGI provision to 100% of  the Adjusted Gross Income which is a good thing for Taxpayers. This screen is an information screen attesting to this fact. 

Please read this IRS link for further details and read the section as it relates to Qualifying Charitable Organizations.

[bimkin]

I'm suffering through this as well--decades of Turbotax use.  My issue is appreciated stock to a donor advised fund being entered with basis value only.  I can't see TT's underlying logic but on the worksheet it's forcing me to make a 170(B) election which shouldn't apply in this situation.  I'm not finding the 30% selection option in my interview; the last screen I get is "use of charity."  Upon leaving the section I do get queried on the Charity's address.  Does TurboTax do a check of charity status in there someplace?

I'll keep following this discussion for updates but this is really frustrating.  Thanks.

[DaveF1006]

It depends. You will enter these as a cash donation and as long as your donation is to a qualified charity, you will be able to deduct up to 100% AGI. IRs has deemed the following aw qualifying charities. Also disregard the questions you are trying to answer regarding Charity address and such. You would only answer this for questions other than cash or stock donations. Since this is a cash donation, you will disregard this section.

1. A state or United States possession (or political subdivision thereof), or the United States or the District of Columbia, if made exclusively for public purposes;
2. A community chest, corporation, trust, fund, or foundation, organized or created in the United States or its possessions, or under the laws of the United States, any state, the District of Columbia or any possession of the United States, and organized and operated exclusively for charitable, religious, educational, scientific, or literary purposes, or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals;
3. A church, synagogue, or other religious organization;
4. A war veterans' organization or its post, auxiliary, trust, or foundation organized in the United States or its possessions;
5. A nonprofit volunteer fire company;
6. A civil defense organization created under federal, state, or local law (this includes unreimbursed expenses of civil defense volunteers that are directly connected with and solely attributable to their volunteer services);
7. A domestic fraternal society, operating under the lodge system, but only if the contribution is to be used exclusively for charitable purposes;
8. A nonprofit cemetery company if the funds are irrevocably dedicated to the perpetual care of the cemetery as a whole and not a particular lot or mausoleum crypt.

[bimkin]

Thanks very much for your quick reply.  It doesn't seem that I should enter this as a cash donation since it is in fact appreciated stock.  As I go through the TT process it does advise me to enter "items", then "publicly traded stock" rather than directly as stock.  (The actual donated shares were originally inherited, which is what begins that detour.)

It does seem that Vanguard's donor advised fund does qualify under (2) in the definitions of charities you list.

My sense is that there's a glitch going on behind the scenes, I'm going to hope it gets worked out before filing time and will continue watching.  If you do have a way to register the problem with the company that would be greatly appreciated.

[bimkin]

One further thought.  As I look at schedule A and the charity limit worksheet these contributions are being placed in the 20% limit column (e).  I believe this is incorrect but don't see a workaround.

Again thanks.

[Telos]

We can debate tax law until late at night... The fact is, that TurboTax coding isn't conforming to the IRS, and that has contributed to four IRS e-file rejections, before I figured out a low impact workaround that received IRS approval. I don't have time to wait for a programming fix, that should never have been necessary.

This buggy 2020 release is completely unacceptable. 20 year-user here and 2020 is worse than the marketing fiasco of a few years ago when TurboTax dumbed-down the Deluxe version to push users to Premier.

Adding to my vexation is that a refund application I made for an unused TT Deluxe license (within the allowed window) was closed without explanation. When I entered the number on the website tracker to get information the response is "not found". 

Fix the product!

[BEECHASER]

I am having this same problem.  TT is using the 20% AGI limit when they should be using the 30% limit.  The receiving organization is  501 C 3  (first category type) and my contribution should be under the 30% rule.  

[RTSims45]

Using TurboTax Deluxe and itemizing deductions, why does only give me 3% of what I gave to my church in cash?