Charitable Donations

[Larry S1]

Renee, I agree with Flips 1934. The $300 deduction has never come up once I started entering "itemized" deductions. When I print a "preview" copy of my returns, Line 10B is blank. Error messages never show up. 

Have you and Cynthia discussed my previous messages?? Her explanation and yours are quite different. Please advise. Thanks.

LarryS1

[KrisD15]

“The new "up to $300 above the line cash charity donation" is available for tax year 2020. This allows a Taxpayer to claim up to a $300 credit which is subtracted from income on the 1040 line 10c if the Taxpayer is claiming the Standard Deduction. (If you Itemize Deductions, all your donations will be listed on Schedule A.) “

TurboTax ONLINE

Click Tax Tools on the left side bar

Click Tools from the drop-down

Click the "Topic Search" box on the screen

Type or scroll down to    standard deduction and exemptions

Click GO 

The next screen gives you an option to change your selection from Standard to Itemized and back. You do not need to change your selection

Scroll down to the bottom of that screen and click CONTINUE

The next screen is the Charitable Cash Contributions under Cares Act screen

IF YOU ARE CLAIMING STANDARD DEDUCTION enter the amount of cash contributions you made, up to  300

IF YOU ARE ITEMIZING DEDUCTIONS enter 0

Scroll down and click Continue

Click Continue on the next screen

DESKTOP

Go to Step-By-Step input

Click Federal

Click Deductions & Credits along the top

Click “I’ll choose what I work on”

Edit or Update Donations to Charity in 2020 if needed,

Then click “Done with Charitable Donations”

Scroll down the “Your 2020 Deductions & Credits” screen and click “Done with Deductions”

Click Continue on the “Let’s Check Your Deductions and Credits” screen

Continue through the following interview questions until you get to the “Here Are Your 2020 Deductions & Credits” screen

Click Continue

If the next screen says “The Standard deduction is Right for You!” click Continue

ON THE NEXT SCREEN enter the cash contribution made in 2020 up to 300 and click Continue

if the screen reports that you are Itemizing, enter 0

Your 1040 should update

@flips1934

@Larry S1

[Larry S1]

Kris, see all of the previous messages and the responses Cynthia has provided. You and Renee evidently are not on the same page as her. This is not about the $300 deduction. It is about---not getting the full amount of charitable deductions being claimed. Cynthia is saying the IRS is still in the process of updating the 2020 guidelines so Turbo Tax can update your program. Is this something you and Renee agree with??

LarryS1

[Larry S1]

Kris--I should have added---we are itemizing deductions--not claiming the standard deduction. Again--see previous messages. Thanks.

LarryS1

[DaveF1006]

No, everything is working fine within Turbo Tax. I did a test scenario in my program by entering a stock 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.  

You may deduct a charitable contribution made to, or for the use of, any of the following organizations that otherwise are qualified under section 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code:

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.

[Edited 03-7-2021|11:17 AM PST]

[Larry S1]

Dave, the itemized donations are less than 1/3rd of AGI. The word "limited" does appear on Line 14 of Schedule A. I am not sure of the Charity Limits Worksheet. I did not see it in my preview copies but can honestly say I was not looking for it. Our stock donation is to the Great Green Bay Charitable Foundation so it is a qualified fund as noted in #2 below. We did the same thing last year and 100% was applied to our 2019 Taxes. All income and deductions for 2020 were nearly identical to 2019. So---not sure why 2020 is acting so different. I'm out of town for the next week and won't be able to access my tax info until next Tuesday. Let me know if there is more on your end. Can you explain Cynthia's responses? Thanks.

LarryS1

[DaveF1006]

I checked and there were no known issues at this time. I noticed Cynthia's response was dated March 1.  i know we had issues in the past but as I mentioned, I did not have an issue when I entered into my test program. Also, if you have Turbo tax software installed on a computer at home, it may update when you arrive from vacation.

If you continue to have issues, please contact tech live support at 1-800-446-8848.  They will have the ability to look at your screen and your return to pinpoint any specific issues you are having.

[Larry S1]

Dave, I logged into TT again and it did update. There were no changes to the Charitable Donation questions I've noted in previous messages. I called the 800 # you provided and couldn't get out of the automated call. It did ask for an ID # that perhaps would have put me through or have made a conversation easier to follow. Can you provide a support ID #? 

Thanks.

LarryS1

[DawnC]

If Line 14 says ''Limited'', you are going to need to find the Charity Limitation worksheet to see how the donation was limited.    I know you said it was a third of your AGI, but did you have a lot of other itemized deductions?    As noted above by Dave, a couple of 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..

If you are sure that is not the case, find the Charity Limit worksheet in the Forms list to see how and why your donation is being limited.  Each charity will have its own numbered limit worksheet.  Did you get the following screen when you entered the donation?   

    Notice on Line 28 - I have a carryover to future years.  

[Larry S1]

Dawn, the AGI limits have not been the issue. Total Itemized Deductions--including Charitable Donations--are about 40# of AGI. Charitable Donations about 30% of AGI. Your response included some information/questions I did not get when I first entered the stock transfer to a Charitable Foundation. So--- I decided to start over. I deleted the stock transfer and reentered all of the information for this donation. As soon as I completed the entry, the amount of Federal Tax owed dropped. The entire amount of Charitable Donations was applied. I first started my 2020 Taxes on Feb 9. Did Turbo Tax make a change as to how this type of donation is entered? I'm referencing the information in the very first response from Cynthia. Anyway---I should be good for now!!!!

LarryS1

[DawnC]

There are updates done every Wednesday night and then there are updates that are manually pushed through on other nights.   It could have been a recent update, but it could have been an older update that corrected that issue.   My next option was going to be to tell you to delete the transaction and re-add and that often does work.   And that has to be done (deletion and re-entry) even after an update is processed in some situations.    I am glad that it is showing correctly now!!  🙂  

It is possible that if you had deleted it 2 weeks ago and re-entered it that it would have fixed itself, but really, it is hard to say what update actually fixed your particular issue.  

[Larry S1]

Dawn, I wasn't able to work on my Taxes over the last 2 weeks. Turbo tax usually asks to download updates before restarting. The same happened today when I began. However, I never thought of having to delete and reenter any information. In this instance--if an update were done to "correct or change" something---how would anyone know that previously entered information may not be affected by the change and would need to be deleted/reentered? Seems like a lot of corrections/changes may be missed if tax files are sent in early. Does TT advise/show what updates are made every Wednesday night??

LarryS1

[1greenysdad]

My wife and  I made charitable donations 2 ways  this year.  One was through my IRA to registered non-profit organizations, and the other was through checks/Visa/or cash.  

My wife received a 2020 Form5498 for the first time this year. It showed that we took all the RMD for the year out and none was used for charitable donations.   In addition we both received 1099-R forms. 

My wife's correctly showed the removal of all RMD for the year and mine showed the correct amount withdrawn and distributed only to non-profit organization.  The remaining monies not used remained in the account as was understood  this was okay  to do this year under the CARES Act. The 1099 form clearly states "Taxable amount not determined".

So, how do I enter my  both non-profit gifts from my IRA as well as the checks/Visa and cash amounts without either double-dipping or not including both types of donations?

[cmminder]

I have a similar issue re: charitable stock donations. 

The problem is with the Charitable Organization Worksheet. 

Rather than deducting the "Value on Donation Date" the software is erroneously deducting the "Stock Original Cost" (i.e., the cost basis). 

There is no workaround that I can find.

This is a big deal.

When can we expect a fix for the program?

[Cynthiad66]

TurboTax cannot provide a fix in a vacuum.  We coordinate with the IRS in programming.  So when the IRS has finalized the forms TurboTax will be able to complete programming.