What are the “tax receipts” for when you donate clothes, furniture, etc?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're still not going to hit the standard deduction so don't waste your time.

If OP has a mortgage she'll have no trouble exceeding the standard deduction.

OP, you sound like a great candidate for retail tax software that will walk you through this. It will tell you the options for estimating the value of the things you donated. For now, take a picture of the donated items and the receipt you were given, and email to yourself with a text description of the items. Refer back to this email at tax time.

Yes, we have a mortgage.

And in response to the snippy comment, we just give our employer tax documents and mortgage stuff to an accountant friend every January.

NP here. I'm sorry, accountant or not this is basic, fundamental stuff every adult should know. We're not asking you for a learned discourse on carried interest - whether to itemize or take the standard deduction is literally the only decision most people have to make when preparing their taxes. You've never asked your accountant any questions, at all?

At a minimum, don't be so proudly ignorant.

Sorry, my husband handles any questions. I just know we've never given her (our CPA friend) any documents about charitable donations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you itemize?

I don’t know what that means if that’s a tax question. But if mean like on the donation receipt, yes, that details everything we donated.

I say this kindly - You need to do some reading on tax filings. This is a very basic question that you should be able to answer as an adult who files taxes.

You’d be surprised. A lot of people just take them to an accountant (also fine). No reason to be snippy.

That’s what I do. I do a lot of things well. Taxes is not one of them.

Sure. But have you *heard* of the concept of charitable deductions? OP hasn't.

I'm OP. I've heard of charitable deductions but I don't know how it works. I guess I just assumed it's for super wealthy people or business owners or unique tax filers, while we're really normal middle class people with normal careers. I asked nicely if this could benefit us in any way. Just trying to learn. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're still not going to hit the standard deduction so don't waste your time.

I figured that’s probably why we never have. Why do they bother giving everyone a receipt then if it’s pointless? Who actually uses the receipts on their taxes?

People who give more overall to charity. We'll give about $40-50k this year in cash/equivalent donations, then maybe $1k in "stuff" to various places.

FYI: the new tax bill imposes a floor for deductions in 2026, so if you can accelerate 2026 donations into 2025, it's worth doing so tax-wise. One charity we give to every year at a certain level, and they're happily accepting our 2026 donation now and applying it (for donor-level purposes) to 2026. For that charity, giving at a certain level gets you some additional "benefits" that's why we give at least that much each year.

[Anonymous]

OP, two questions:

1. How much per year do you think you pay in mortgage interest? Just the interest -- not the principal

2. How much do you pay in state income tax and property taxes combined?

If the answer to all of the above is more than 30k a year, then it makes sense to itemize and include your donations. If the answer is less, it doesn't

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you itemize?

I don’t know what that means if that’s a tax question. But if mean like on the donation receipt, yes, that details everything we donated.

I say this kindly - You need to do some reading on tax filings. This is a very basic question that you should be able to answer as an adult who files taxes.

You’d be surprised. A lot of people just take them to an accountant (also fine). No reason to be snippy.

But even if you use an accountant, they review your filing with you! Taking the standard deduction or itemizing is a very, very, very basic tax question.

Did you read the post? She said they’ve never itemized before so no one would have explained it to her. She then asked (very politely!) for someone to explain it to her.
Maybe message boards aren’t for you.

Oh bugger off.

Itemizing vs standard deductions aren’t some big mystery that someone has to explain to OP. This info is literally everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you itemize?

I don’t know what that means if that’s a tax question. But if mean like on the donation receipt, yes, that details everything we donated.

I say this kindly - You need to do some reading on tax filings. This is a very basic question that you should be able to answer as an adult who files taxes.

You’d be surprised. A lot of people just take them to an accountant (also fine). No reason to be snippy.

But even if you use an accountant, they review your filing with you! Taking the standard deduction or itemizing is a very, very, very basic tax question.

Did you read the post? She said they’ve never itemized before so no one would have explained it to her. She then asked (very politely!) for someone to explain it to her.
Maybe message boards aren’t for you.

Oh bugger off.

Itemizing vs standard deductions aren’t some big mystery that someone has to explain to OP. This info is literally everywhere.

Alrighty, Karen.
(I'm a CPA but I understand why people find it confusing in the beginning.)

[Anonymous]

We keep a list of everything we donate and use It's Deductible to assign value.

[Anonymous]

Give the receipt to your accountant along with your mortgage info and other tax documents so they have what they need to figure out if you should itemize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're still not going to hit the standard deduction so don't waste your time.

If OP has a mortgage she'll have no trouble exceeding the standard deduction.

OP, you sound like a great candidate for retail tax software that will walk you through this. It will tell you the options for estimating the value of the things you donated. For now, take a picture of the donated items and the receipt you were given, and email to yourself with a text description of the items. Refer back to this email at tax time.

Yes, we have a mortgage.

And in response to the snippy comment, we just give our employer tax documents and mortgage stuff to an accountant friend every January.

NP here. I'm sorry, accountant or not this is basic, fundamental stuff every adult should know. We're not asking you for a learned discourse on carried interest - whether to itemize or take the standard deduction is literally the only decision most people have to make when preparing their taxes. You've never asked your accountant any questions, at all?

At a minimum, don't be so proudly ignorant.

This is tough but true. You should be checking your accountants work. Not understanding what the accountant is doing is exactly how rich people have the house of cards fall. Now you're more likely to end up owing than going to jail. But also maybe watch the first episode of Schitts Creek again.

[Anonymous]

Usually we are given a blank receipt and have to assign our own value to it. I sometimes try to take pictures of the bags/items. Typically you should use thrift shop value, which is a fraction of whatever you paid for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're still not going to hit the standard deduction so don't waste your time.

If OP has a mortgage she'll have no trouble exceeding the standard deduction.

OP, you sound like a great candidate for retail tax software that will walk you through this. It will tell you the options for estimating the value of the things you donated. For now, take a picture of the donated items and the receipt you were given, and email to yourself with a text description of the items. Refer back to this email at tax time.

Yes, we have a mortgage.

And in response to the snippy comment, we just give our employer tax documents and mortgage stuff to an accountant friend every January.

NP here. I'm sorry, accountant or not this is basic, fundamental stuff every adult should know. We're not asking you for a learned discourse on carried interest - whether to itemize or take the standard deduction is literally the only decision most people have to make when preparing their taxes. You've never asked your accountant any questions, at all?

At a minimum, don't be so proudly ignorant.

This is tough but true. You should be checking your accountants work. Not understanding what the accountant is doing is exactly how rich people have the house of cards fall. Now you're more likely to end up owing than going to jail. But also maybe watch the first episode of Schitts Creek again.

Oh FFS. That isn't accurate. Schitts Creek?
Why would you even use an accountant if you are going to check their work? People go to accountants because they can't do it themselves.
You are NOT going to jail if you provided your accountant with accurate information. You only go to jail if there was willful intent and those people knew exactly what they were doing versus "accountant error".