I was hoping for any advice for a place to donate clothing and how this works with getting a tax deduction. Normally I would just throw a lot of my old clothes in a bin but between my wife's shoes, clothes, and my old dress clothes we have a ton of bags.
Are any places better than others? Do I just get a receipt of the materials that I dropp off? Thanks.
This is all I can find about it.
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I have a list (really my wife does) of everything we donated on that date and the condition and then come tax time using Turbo Tax they have a place where you input each item you donated the condition and the date and they handle the tax deduction.
It actually adds up to a decent deduction, so besides simply being charitable like we are, I try and make sure to schedule a quarterly pickup with them because the tax deduction is a big incentive.
Some places will have lists of approximate values for you to use. The Salvation Army is probably your best resource for this, and they are certainly worth supporting.
You just need a list of items and their condition. For example:
girls t-shirt (good condition): 10
girls summer dresses (excellent condition (we only use this for unused tags still on)): 4
Girls Winter Coat (fair condition): 3
Boys jeans (good condition): 4 pairs
Men's dress shirt (fair condition): 5
that's it, you do not need color, size, or retail price for an IRS audit.
Also, most of these places like Big Brothers, Big Sisters and Salvation Army don't only take clothes they take old toys, DVDs, books, small furniture. etc.
We always used those places as we turned over the kids toys (that survived in quality condition), books, DVDs, etc. and those are all tax deductible if donated.
If you have a deduction of $200 for clothes, its nbd. If you try to deduct 5K, then that could kick out an audit depending on your salary
Charitable Calculator - ( New Window )
you need to itemize.