Charitable donations -clothes?

Question

I donate items through out the year, for a few Organizations I save the slips they leave at the door..

I added up the items i have donated this year using the FMW, I am over the $500 mark (filing Married/jointly and itemizing) . Now does it matter what type of items they are if some are clothes? Can baby & kid items be allowed for this deduction if it was given to a organiztion?

Quite confused and afraid to be red flagged for an audit (even though i have it documented), or should i just adjust the amount to be under the 500 mark ( 840 now) and be safe?
I

Answer 1

If you've got it documented, and feel confident that you can justify your dollar amounts, I don't see any reason you should worry. I usually adjust my dollar amounts to be under the $500 mark, but that's because I don't feel like doing the extra paperwork.

If you're filing your own taxes and feel like the extra paperwork is worth the deduction, go for it. If you're paying someone to do them for you, I'd just ask them what the difference would be. If it's a couple of bucks over $500 and it's going to cost you extra to file the paperwork through a tax provider, I'd adjust the amounts. If you're being honest and reasonable, you shouldn't have a problem.

Any household items/clothing/etc. is eligible for the charitable donation deduction when itemizing. It's only large/valuable/expensive items that need extensive docutmentation. When in doubt, contact someone who provides tax help or a tax preparer. Most cities offer free services for questions that might come up.

Answer 2

get the tax software called 'its deductible'.
If you do get the audit you can show the recipts.
the one time that I did go over the threashold, I jsut copied the reciepts onto one sheet of paper and sent that along with everything else.
Who knows if that helped. but it made me feel better sending it in!