Why is ItsDeductible discounting charitable (cash) contributions when CARES Act allows 100%?

[Opus 17 · Accepted solution]

I don't know what you mean by "discounting."

ItsDeductible is an online tracking site for your donations during the year and has nothing to do with income taxes.  When your donations are imported into Turbotax, Turbotax will apply the rules in effect at the time.

If you are trying to use the current version of Turbotax installed on your own computer, you need to be patient.  The first release of the program is missing many of the tax law changes for 2020, they will be fixed in updates before filing is open in January. 

[mnl-sml]

Thanks very much.  This is helpful.  I hope you have a safe and healthy Thankgiving!

[SteamTrain]

....and...depending on what you are looking at....if you are looking at the table of cash values, remember that the cash donation is a potential "deduction" from income...and not a credit towards taxes paid. 

The "Estimated Savings" column is the potential reduction in taxes, based upon your estimated income level, and expected Marginal tax bracket.   The columns do not distinguish between the Cares Act allowance for a max $300 cash income reduction for people who will use the Std Deduction on their 2020 taxes, vs. the total of all charity amounts if a person happens to be able to fully use all donations as Itemized Deductions. 

 IF the numbers in this column seem "off", you need to go up to the "Personal Info" menu selection and select your proper filing "status" and expected income range for the year, so that the expected tax bracket can be applied to the "Estimated Savings" column.

(IF you change your income range while showing the table below, you have to exit the table, and then come back into that table before the new expected savings values will show up)

____________________________________________

[DonWOK]

I just applied the latest update and it still doesn't seem to recognize the 100% deductibility.

[SteamTrain]

@DonWOK 

Run thru the Charity deductions again...on the page AFTER the main table of charity deductions, I get the following page where you have to define who you made the donations to.  Some of them are not full-100%-allowed.....if you donated to some 30% organizations.

Note also that the first two selections are slightly different....the second one allow you to use the normal limits, and carry-forward some of your donations to next year....you might want to do that if you have other deductions that drop your taxable income to zero without having to usie the full 100% this year

___________________________________

[DonWOK]

I noticed that you are using Premier, but I am using Deluxe and it doesn't have that screen.

[SteamTrain]

It should too. 

1)  are you sure your "cash" charity donations that you've entered exceed 60% of your AGI?  i.e. you've really entered all your income for 2020?

2) Irrespective of the donation $$, if your AGI is below the STD Deduction for your filing status (MFJ,MFS, Single HOH), the Std Ded would  be used instead...so that screen might not appear.

[DonWOK]

Thanks for the assistance.  I was answering one of the questions incorrectly, so it did not take me to the screen where I could decide if the donation met the 100% criteria.  I have not received all of my income information, so it was limiting me to all of the income I had recorded.