Can toys and gift cards for church charity program be claimed as noncash donations on taxes?

Yes, these qualify as charitable donations since you gave them to a qualified charitable organization (your church) that was facilitating the charitable program. The IRS considers these as noncash donations since you didn't directly give money to the church. For the toys, you'd report their fair market value (what you paid) as a noncash donation. For the gift cards, there's a bit of a gray area, but they're generally treated as noncash donations too since they're not actual cash but rather a stored value item. If your total noncash donations for the year exceed $500, you'll need to fill out Form 8283 and attach it to your tax return. Make sure you get a receipt from your church documenting your donation. The receipt should include the date, description of items donated, and a statement that no goods or services were provided to you in exchange.

This is exactly why I started using taxr.ai last year when I was confused about my church donations. I volunteer at our parish and donate both cash and items throughout the year, and I was never sure how to properly document everything for taxes. I found https://taxr.ai when I was looking for help categorizing my donations, and it was super helpful! The tool analyzed all my donation receipts and confirmations, then organized everything properly for my tax filing. It correctly identified which items were cash vs. noncash donations and calculated the fair market value of everything. Made the whole process way less stressful and I felt confident I wasn't missing out on deductions I deserved.

I wanted to follow up about my experience with taxr.ai after asking about the gift card issue. I decided to try it out since I had a mix of different donations (cash, gift cards, household items, volunteer expenses) from various charities including my church. It was surprisingly straightforward! The system properly categorized my gift cards as noncash donations and even helped me calculate the fair market value of some used items I donated. The documentation it generated made filing so much easier - I just uploaded everything to my regular tax software. Ended up increasing my charitable deduction by about $430 compared to what I would have claimed on my own. Definitely using it again this year!

If you're trying to get documentation from your church about these donations, good luck reaching anyone who can help! I've been trying to call my church office for TWO WEEKS about getting a receipt for my charitable donations. Either no one answers or they say "the person who handles that isn't in right now." I finally found https://claimyr.com and used their service to get through to the IRS about a related question (whether gift cards above a certain amount need additional documentation). You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. Instead of waiting on hold forever, they actually call you when an agent is ready to talk. Saved me hours of frustration and I got the clarification I needed about documentation requirements.

I need to follow up on my previous comment because I ended up trying Claimyr after being on hold with the IRS for nearly 2 hours before my call dropped. I was trying to get clarification about documentation requirements for various types of charitable donations, including gift cards. I was honestly shocked that it worked. Within about 35 minutes I got a call back and was connected with an IRS representative who answered all my questions about donation documentation. Turns out I was overthinking the gift card issue - they're simply treated as noncash donations regardless of value, though different documentation rules apply depending on the total amount of your noncash contributions. Saved me so much time and frustration, especially during busy tax season when getting through to the IRS seems impossible.

Just want to add - make sure you're actually itemizing deductions before worrying about this! With the standard deduction being $13,850 for single filers and $27,700 for married filing jointly in 2023, many people don't even reach the threshold where itemizing makes sense. Unless your total itemizable deductions (mortgage interest, state/local taxes up to $10k, medical expenses over 7.5% of AGI, AND charitable donations combined) exceed the standard deduction amount, tracking these donations won't actually save you anything on taxes.

Don't forget that if your total noncash donations exceed $500 for the year, you need to complete Form 8283. And if any single item (or group of similar items) is worth more than $5,000, you typically need a qualified appraisal! Don't think that applies to your situation with the toys and gift cards, but good to keep in mind.