Is it worth the trouble non cash deductions?

[leahjade]

I usually just take bags of stuff to Goodwill and drop them off without getting a receipt. Is it worth it tax wise to do all the paperwork to itemize every item I give away? Do you have to save all the original receipts of the items you bought? If it's only going to save me $20 or so on my tax refund, then it's not worth it to me.

 

[disneychrista]

You do not have to have the original reciepts. How much you get will depend on how much you donate.

If you google goodwill donation value you can download a chart that tells you how much your donations are worth (ie T-shirt - $4, Jeans $8, etc). How much of a deduction you will get depends on how much you donate.

 

[Halle]

I donate tons of clothing to Goodwill and no longer do the donations for clothing, just not worth the hassle. I'm just happy someone may get some use from things that shrunk in the closet!!

 

[clh2]

We absolutely get receipts from Goodwill (which basically says you made a donation of "insert generic description here"). We keep very detailed descriptions of our donations, and also look up the values online.

We usually donate ~ $500 every year of stuff, so if we were in th 25% tax rate, that is a savings of $125. Definitely not worth doing a garage sale or Craigslist, IMHO.

 

[Disney_Freak56]

I suppose if you don't itemize, then it wouldn't be worth it to keep records and ask for the tax receipt, but if you're like us with grown up kids and the interest we pay on our home getting less and less with each year we come closer to paying off that debt, then yes, it is worth it to get that receipt when hou make a donation. We need every deduction we can get.

 

[ekmom]

I used to think it wasn't worth it but I've changed my mind. We use ItsDeductible on Turbotax to get the values and I couldn't believe how it added up. There is a Salvation Army truck in the parking lot of our local Kroger most weekends so it's easy to donate. Last year we donated maybe a dozen bags of clothes from cleaning out our closets and I think we ended about a $1500 deduction.

 

[Pigeon]

I used to think it wasn't worth it but I've changed my mind. We use ItsDeductible on Turbotax to get the values and I couldn't believe how it added up. There is a Salvation Army truck in the parking lot of our local Kroger most weekends so it's easy to donate. Last year we donated maybe a dozen bags of clothes from cleaning out our closets and I think we ended about a $1500 deduction.

Of course, your tax deduction will be specific to your situation, but I find it completely worth it. I do the same as the pp with It's Deductible and TurboTax, and it's a much bigger deduction that I would have imagined.

I sort the stuff I'm donating into piles, (kid's shirts, men's jeans, etc.) and count up how many of each and write it down. I take a couple of digital pics of the whole mess just for my own records. I go to the Salvation Army and they give a generic receipt that says, for example, 5 large bags of clothes. Then I use It's Deductible to figure out how much it's worth.

If you don't use TurboTax, there's a valuation guide on the Savation Army website that you can look at. I think you'll be surprised at how much you can deduct.

 

[Green Tea]

I just enter everything on itsdeductable.com and when tax time comes around it automatically transfers everything to the return. I get a huge deduction for the things I send to Goodwill over the course of a year.

 

[tlbwriter]

Of course, your tax deduction will be specific to your situation, but I find it completely worth it. I do the same as the pp with It's Deductible and TurboTax, and it's a much bigger deduction that I would have imagined.

Same here.

 

[bettymae1121]

I haven't donated clothes in a while (since I now work from home I don't go through clothes the way I used to) but when I did I'd keep track and it was usually worth a $100 to $200 deduction every year, I'd say it was worth it. I used Turbo Tax's "It's Deductable" and as long as I had a list of what I donated handy when I sat down at the computer it was pretty painless. When I put the clothes into the garbage bags before I'd head down to the shelter, I'd just mark down each item as it went into the bag (shirt, pants, skirt, etc. plus the condition it was in) and then I'd take that list along with my receipt from the shelter and put it in my tax file so it would be handy at tax time.

Really wasn't much work at all, just added a couple of minutes to baging up the clothes.

 

[HM]

Absolutely. We got a nice credit for our donations this year (and every year). Just write down each item as you put it in a box or bag and then get the donation receipt when you leave your stuff at Goodwill. Then take the list you made and go to Goodwill's site and look for their suggested donation price list and figure out the amount you gave. Clip those together and keep with your tax things. Then when tax time comes around, you have a donation amount to add to the credit fields on the IRS form.

 

[mrsklamc]

I write it down and I also photograph it because it just takes a second and then I have that record if we ever got audited.

 

[Kathi OD]

I usually just take bags of stuff to Goodwill and drop them off without getting a receipt. Is it worth it tax wise to do all the paperwork to itemize every item I give away? Do you have to save all the original receipts of the items you bought? If it's only going to save me $20 or so on my tax refund, then it's not worth it to me.

I figure it this way. It only takes a few extra minutes of my time to write down what it is that I am donating and less than a minute for Goodwill to give me my receipt when I drop the goods off. Add in another 10 minutes to do It's Deductible for a total of about 15 minutes, and that $20 becomes the equivalent of $80/hour. I don't know how much you make, but I certainly don't make anywhere near $80/hour.

Even if it didn't work out to be quite that much per hour, $20 in my pocket is better spent than $20 in the government's pocket. FWIW, just like the PPs, it's always much more than $20 for my effort.

 

[mrodgers]

Completely depends on your situation. $5k in mortgage interest, $1k in property tax, $1500 in state tax, no other deductions, $3900 worth of donated clothing to get to standard deduction level is a LOT of clothing. Not worth it when we drop 2 or 3 bags of clothing a year off.

 

[luv2mickey]

worth it for us, kept us from owing this year!

 

[leahjade]

If Goodwill gives a generic receipt, isn't the IRS just taking your word for what you say you donate? You could write down anything that way. I thought you had to have original clothing receipts?

 

[Kathi OD]

If Goodwill gives a generic receipt, isn't the IRS just taking your word for what you say you donate? You could write down anything that way. I thought you had to have original clothing receipts?

Yep. They pretty much take your word for it. You do not have to have the original receipts. Of course, if you have thousands of dollars worth of stuff, year after year after year, that's going to look suspicious. But basically, if you have a receipt from Goodwill or some other charity, you're good to go.

 

[leahjade]

Thanks I will give it a try next year! I was reading that you have to file a special form if you donate more than $500 worth of stuff which wouldn't be too hard if you have furniture etc.

 

[Sadie22]

Thanks I will give it a try next year! I was reading that you have to file a special form if you donate more than $500 worth of stuff which wouldn't be too hard if you have furniture etc.

I photograph and list items as I containerize them for donation. I donate a bag or box or two at a time. I have two thrift stores within a few miles of my house so I can drop things off when out running errands. No one donation exceeds the amount at which an appraisal would be required.

 

[mistysue]

I spent some time looking around this year and apparently if you donate more than $500 worth of stuff in a category you are supposed to have original receipts. Nobody actually does, but I'm a little pissed that I unloaded my entire closet right at the end of the year. I took over a couple hundred maternity items and about 400 shirts and pairs of pants that didn't fit one of us right. I don't have original receipts for any of it but I had my entire wardrobe from before DD, the wardrobe from before DS and the wardrobe from before this pregnancy!
The goodwill store will probably make $2-3,000 from my clothes and I'm nervous to claim more than $500.

I also completely filled my mini van with old furniture and toys twice. I had a good few weeks of destashing.