Garage sale worth the trouble??

[KarenAylwood]

You donate something to a qualifying charity with a value of $100.....you can subtract $100 from your taxable income, thus you don't pay income tax on that $100.

If you file taxes with TurboTax, I would check out their program Deduct It. It helps you keep track of everything you donate and imports it right into TurboTax when you go to file.

As tvguy said, it is a deduction from your income. This is helpful because it can put you into a lower tax bracket if you are on the edge between two brackets and might significantly reduce your tax burden.

Thank you guys for your answers!! I don't think it's something I could do every year but once we're out of the baby stage I fully plan on having one. Then maybe set stuff aside that we want to get rid of in a certain part of the basement and if/when it gets enough we'll get rid of it. As our kids grow I KNOW we will have tons of stuff- clothes, toys, etc. I've been pretty good about not having clutter but we do have too much "stuff."

 

[aprilchem]

How'd you fare this year?

We made $798.50 this year.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

We made $798.50 this year.

WOW!! That'd be nice.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I think the most we ever made at a yard sale was about $400 - that was after we got married and we cleared out our college furniture and hand-me-down stuff since we'd gotten a lot of new stuff when we got married. We used the money to pay the tax bill that came with being MFJ instead of Single (this was back in the days of the "marriage penalty"). Since then, I think the most we've ever made is maybe $200 and the last couple of times we made maybe $75. Totally not worth it, IMO. We donate all clothing to our church's clothing closet, as well as small household items like sheets, towels, pots & pans. The last time I had non-clothing items to donate, I took them to our Humane Society thrift store. If I have furniture or bigger items, I'll usually offer them on my FB page to my local friends.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I have been through that once... never again.

I guess it would depend on what you are selling and if it is in demand or not. I know I did one with my ex mother in-law many years ago. It was a lot of prep work, pretty much a waste of a Saturday doing it. What money was made was not worth the hassle.

 

[Eighty8Keys]

I have been through that once... never again.

I guess it would depend on what you are selling and if it is in demand or not. I know I did one with my ex mother in-law many years ago. It was a lot of prep work, pretty much a waste of a Saturday doing it. What money was made was not worth the hassle.

I did one with my mom a few years ago partly as a way to earn some money for our next trip but also to encourage her to get rid of some of the clutter in her house. She brought over a few boxes of stuff that she priced too high and refused to bargain on. Plus she found a lot of stuff of mine that she liked. The few things she sold didn't cover the mountain of stuff she bought from me and she ended up losing money and with more clutter than before. In total I think i sold maybe $200 and a lot of that was to my mom. Next time maybe I'll just let her go though my house and make me offers on stuff she likes and save the hassle of an actual sale.

 

[dpswift]

We had a sale a few weeks ago. We made $100. It was all in little items. we need to have another one as well. I wanted to donate all the clothes after the first one but my husband said no

 

[snayak]

If you file taxes with TurboTax, I would check out their program Deduct It. It helps you keep track of everything you donate and imports it right into TurboTax when you go to file.

As tvguy said, it is a deduction from your income. This is helpful because it can put you into a lower tax bracket if you are on the edge between two brackets and might significantly reduce your tax burden.

Just as a point of clarification, tax brackets are marginal - so it wont "significantly reduce" your tax burden if you are on the edge.

Heres how it works (using US 2015 tax schedule, for single filers):

Taxable Income      Tax Rate
$0—$9,275                    10%
$9,276—$37,650          $927.50 plus 15% of the amount over $9,275
$37,651—$91,150       $5,183.75 plus 25% of the amount over $37,650
$91,151—$190,150     $18,558.75 plus 28% of the amount over $91,150
$190,151—$413,350    $46,278.75 plus 33% of the amount over $190,150
$413,351—$415,050   $119,934.75 plus 35% of the amount over $413,350
$415,051 or more    $120,529.75 plus 39.6% of the amount over $415,050

If you make $91,151 then only $1 (one dollar) is taxed at 28%, in addition to the $18,558.75 you already own. The entire $90,751 is NOT taxed at 28%, so deducing $1 will reduce your tax burden by $0.28 (28 cents).

Tax deductions are generally favorable and can significantly reduce your tax burden especially when stacked together (mortgage, donations, vehicle mileage), but they don't matter much if you are slightly into the next higher bracket since only the portion into the next bracket is taxed at that rate.

As an aside, I am not a financial or tax professional, and can only speak for my experiences with filing federal income taxes in the United States.

 

[ilovefh]

Can you get together with friends and have a group yard sale? We just had a 5 family yard sale and we all did pretty well, and we had a good time because who doesn't love a little adult time without the kids! We do it twice a year. On our own we may not have enough to have a yard sale, but together we do.

We each labeled our things with the price and our initials. We had one main cashier and she took money and totaled it for us in a notebook.

 

[Shyanne]

I have had a few and I think it is very much worth it!