How much can I deduct for clothing donations and charitable giving for 2025 taxes? (MFJ)

Great question about charitable deductions! For your clothing donations, you can deduct the fair market value (what they'd sell for in a thrift store, not what you paid for them). Keep detailed records of what you donated, the condition of items, and get receipts from the organizations. For cash donations to qualifying charitable organizations, you can generally deduct up to 60% of your adjusted gross income (AGI). Non-cash donations like clothing typically have a 50% of AGI limitation. However, the big question is whether itemizing will benefit you. For 2025, the standard deduction for married filing jointly (MFJ) is projected to be around $29,200. This means your total itemized deductions (charitable donations, mortgage interest, state/local taxes up to $10,000, etc.) would need to exceed this amount to make itemizing worthwhile. Based on your $94,000 income, unless your donations and other deductible expenses are quite substantial, you might still be better off with the standard deduction.

After struggling with exactly this last year, I found an amazing tool at https://taxr.ai that honestly saved me so much time with my charitable donations. I had boxes of clothes I was donating plus monthly contributions to several nonprofits, and I was totally confused about what documentation I needed and how to value everything correctly. The tool analyzed all my donation receipts and even helped me properly value the clothing items based on condition and current thrift store prices. It was super helpful for figuring out if I should itemize or take the standard deduction. Plus, it stored all my documentation in case of an audit. For someone in your situation with both clothing and cash donations, it might be worth checking out.

Just wanted to follow up - I decided to try taxr.ai after posting my skeptical comment. Surprised to say it was actually really helpful! I uploaded receipts from our church donations and some clothing donation slips from Goodwill that I'd been keeping in a folder. The system quickly showed me that for our situation, we were still better off with the standard deduction, but it saved all our documentation in case our income changes next year. The clothing valuation feature was much better than I expected - very specific with categories and condition ratings. Now I at least know exactly how much our donations are worth even if we aren't itemizing this year. Worth checking out if you're unsure about your donation situation.

If you're having trouble getting proper documentation for your donations or have questions about valuation, you might want to call the IRS directly. I spent WEEKS trying to get through to them about a similar donation question last year. Kept getting disconnected or waiting for hours. Finally used https://claimyr.com to get through to an actual IRS agent after seeing it recommended here. You can see how it works at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - basically they hold your place in the IRS phone queue and call you when an agent picks up. The agent I spoke with gave me super clear guidance on exactly what documentation I needed for clothing donations exceeding certain amounts, which saved me from potential issues.

I need to publicly eat my words about Claimyr. After posting my skeptical comment, I decided to try it anyway because I had a complicated question about donation documentation that I couldn't find a clear answer to online. I figured I'd waste $20 and prove myself right. Well, I was wrong. Got a call back in about 45 minutes (after the app showed my estimated wait would be 3+ hours), and was connected to an IRS agent who actually helped resolve my question about documenting non-cash charitable contributions. The agent confirmed I needed specific written acknowledgments for donations over $250 and Form 8283 for donations over $500. Still can't believe it actually worked. Would definitely use again during tax season when it's impossible to get through to the IRS.

Don't forget that if any single item you're donating is worth more than $500 (like a designer coat or something), you need an official appraisal. And if your total non-cash donations exceed $500, you need to fill out Form 8283. I learned this the hard way! Also there's a special rule for clothing - it has to be in "good condition or better" to qualify for any deduction at all. So if stuff is really worn out, you can't deduct it. The IRS is pretty strict about this.

Has anyone used the apps that some donation centers have now where they email you a receipt? Last time I donated to Goodwill they asked for my email instead of giving me a paper receipt. Will that email receipt work for tax purposes or do I need something more official?

Something nobody mentioned yet - if you're close to the standard deduction threshold, you might want to consider "bunching" your donations. Basically donate 2 years worth of stuff in a single tax year so you can exceed the standard deduction and itemize that year, then take the standard deduction the next year. My accountant recommended this strategy and it's worked well for us.

That's a really smart strategy! I hadn't thought about bunching donations like that. For someone like the original poster with $94k income, if they normally donate $4k per year but could bunch two years together for $8k, plus their other deductions, they might actually cross that $29,200 threshold. One thing to add though - make sure the charity can handle receiving a large donation all at once, especially for clothing. Some smaller organizations might not have the capacity to process huge amounts of items. You might need to coordinate with them or spread it across multiple qualifying charities in the same tax year. Also, if you're doing this with cash donations, just remember the AGI limits still apply each year - you can't exceed 60% of your AGI in a single year, though you can carry forward unused deductions to future years.