I made clothing donations that are worth more than $5K but?

Question

I didn't get an appraisal for them. Am I limited to only $4,999 as my clothing donation amount now?

Cheers!

I have the Salvation Army receipt for my donation but I was looking at the IRS form for donations and it says that it the donation was over $5K then you need an official appraisal. I didn't get one but my total donation was about $7K - so am I not allowed to claim $7K as a donation amount because I didn't get an appraisal?

Answer 1

Hi,,I think you are limited to a set amount you can write off.After that you have to itemize every piece and get a receipt by the people you are giving it too.I could be wrong ,so check with gov.Ask IRS what you can do in your situation. Good Luck.

Answer 2

You are limited to what the Salvation Army is likely to get when they sell your donated clothing. My shoot from the hip number, based on walking through a store and looking at the goods is about 15% of what it would cost to buy new. That is not guranteed! The chance of an individual donating $7,000 worth of clothing is something close to zero.

Answer 3

Unless you donated several semi trailer loads of clothes to the Salvation Army, I think you are over estimating the fair market value of those used clothes. Use garage sale values instead of the purchase price.

Your $7,000 is probably more like $200 or $300.

Answer 4

It looks like your donation is limited to $5000 because you don't have an appraisal. Here is the link that I am using.

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p561/ar02.html#d0e1545

Answer 5

Are you able to itemized your deductions on a Schedule A which will be attached to your 1040 form? If not, then you can not use any of your donations.

Answer 6

If you don't have record of it you could be out of luck

Answer 7

YES