Do I have to enter each charatible donation separately on my tax forms?

Question

We have donated 100's of items, and I'm wondering if we have to make a separate entry for each individual item, or if they can somehow be grouped?

Answer 1

You'll need to make separate entries by organization. For instance, if I gave more than $500 in non-cash contributions, I'd need a separate Form 8283 which lists contributions and a more detailed explanation of what was donated.

So, typical entries would look like this:

First United Methodist Church 1850
United Way Payroll 150
Boy Scouts of America 30


then non-cash entries would look like:

Salvation Army misc furniture 150
Goodwill clothing & misc household 200


Be absolutely sure that any non-cash contributions listed are backed up by receipts or statements from the organization and remember that any non-cash contributions made after August 17, 2006 must have been in good condition. You don't have to have a statement from the organization for payroll deductions, but you will need one for other cash donations, or you can use cancelled checks if the contribution is less than $250.

Also please note that in deciding whether to use Form 8283, you need to add all of the non-cash contributions together to see whether it totals over $500.

You can find out more about this in IRS Publication 17, Chapter 24. This is available from the www.irs.gov web site.

Answer 2

Seperate them out by cash and non cash contributions as they go in different spots then seperate them out by the charity you donated to and as always keep receipts especially for the next filing season as the IRS will want receipts for everything next year even if you give money to the bell ringers at Christmas they are cracking down on charitable contributions:)

Answer 3

No, you total items into the categories listed on schedule A. But keep your itemized list - if you are audited, you'd need them.

Answer 4

and make sure that you have documentation for each deduction
that you take.and keep them for at least 5 years.