Is anyone else having a problem with their Fed return in the cash Charitable section? Mine keeps saying "Cash Charitable is too large," but I'm entering $300.

[sara-elisabeth25]

I am trying to take the new $300 Cash Charitable deduction that's an option with the Standard Deduction for tax year 2020. My donations were well over $300, so I am entering $300, but it keeps coming up as an error. It doesn't seems to fix it when I change the amount to slightly less either.

[KathrynG3 · Accepted solution]

To get past this error, try deleting what is in the Charitable Cash Contributions under Cares Act page. TurboTax can carry your original donation amount to this line for you. 

To do this in TurboTax, assuming you entered cash donations in TurboTax already separate from this entry, follow these steps:

• From the left menu, select Federal.
• Go to the second tab from the left, Deductions & Credit.
• Scroll down to Donations to Charity in 2020 and select Edit/Add to review what is listed and confirm it is correct.
• Select Done with Charitable Donations.
• Answer any additional questions and select Wrap up tax breaks and continue through the prompts.
• When  you see Charitable Cash Contributions under Cares Act, highlight the contents of the cell before deleting it so that it is truly blank and delete the entry.
• Select Continue.
   
• Repeat Wrap up tax breaks to get the optimizer to verify you should take the standard deduction. 
• When you see the Charitable Cash Contributions under Cares Act page, you should see your full donation amount posted here already. This is fine. 

To see what will be reported,

• Go to the left menu and select Tax Tools.
• Select Tools and View Tax Summary. 
• Go back to the left menu and select Preview my 1040.
• Scroll down to Line 10b. You should see 300.
• To return to your program, select Back from the left menu.
• Continue with your Review.

[sara-elisabeth25]

Thank you, that helped me correct the problem.

[Anonydon]

I had the same problem and nothing I did through the review process worked. I ended up having to go back and add enough charitable gifts under the itemize deductions option so my total was over the $300 limit. The problem was that I had never been prompted to enter them since I qualified for the standard deduction. At least... I think that's what finally stopped the review trigger.

[Poolmon]

Dear Turbotax:
In the Desktop 2020 Premier software using the Interview Method I skipped Schedule A (including Charity Donations) since I was taking the Standard Deduction. I was later presented with the Affordable Cares Act (ACA) option to deduct up to $300 cash. I estimated an amount and entered it. When I later went back to try to change it I could not find any link or reference to that ACA Contribution Deduction.

I tried going to the Forms to see what the Data Source was for it so that I could find it that way, but the Data Source option was greyed out. I tried to jump back into the Interview Method blindly to find it and when I located the first ACA question it reset all the actual data that I had entered on my rebates to a default value.
There has to be a better way to access this ACA info and each of its sub-components directly as well as coordinate it with Schedule A where it showed that I had no Charity entry (since I had not even started that Schedule). How to we get back to the ACA Charity value we entered and change it without redoing all the other related ACA info and why is there no reference to the ACA section in any link for direct access?
Thank You For Your Anticipated Response.

[ReneeM7122]

The workaround is to delete the $300 in the error check. Then go back to Deductions & Credits and enter the contribution there, in the Donations to Charity topic. 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.

Please try the following workaround: 

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. 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 should appear on Form 1040 line 10b.

How the CARES act changes deducting charitable contributions made in 2020

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.

Keep in mind, it is very important to keep records of your charitable contributions.  If the IRS asks about them later, they will be denied if you don't have a record, receipt, letter, etc.

@Poolmon