How much can I deduct on donations of clothing and to charitable organizations?

Great questions about charitable deductions! For clothing donations, you can deduct the fair market value of the items (what they'd sell for in a thrift store, not what you paid originally). Most thrift stores have donation value guides to help determine this. For both clothing and monetary donations to qualified charitable organizations, you can generally deduct up to 60% of your adjusted gross income. However, there are some nuances. If you're taking the standard deduction ($29,200 for MFJ in 2025), remember you won't actually benefit from itemizing unless your total itemized deductions exceed that amount. Documentation is important! For donations under $250, keep a receipt. For donations over $250, you need a written acknowledgment from the charity. Cash donations also require bank records or receipts regardless of amount.

I was in the same boat last year with tons of clothing donations and wasn't sure how to handle it all! I found this amazing service called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that really helped me figure out my donation situation. It analyzed all my donation receipts and automatically calculated the fair market value based on IRS guidelines. Saved me so much time trying to figure out what each item was worth! The best part was when I uploaded pictures of my donation receipts, it extracted all the relevant info and organized everything for my tax filing. Seriously made itemizing my deductions way less intimidating.

Just wanted to follow up about the taxr.ai recommendation. I was skeptical but decided to give it a try with my huge backlog of donation receipts from 2024. This thing is legit! I uploaded pictures of all my donation slips and it organized everything perfectly. The valuation guide it provided helped me realize I'd been significantly undervaluing my donations for years. Ended up with about $800 more in legitimate deductions than I would have calculated myself. Definitely using this for my 2025 filing!

If you're having trouble figuring out if your charitable deductions are worth itemizing, you might want to talk to someone at the IRS directly. But good luck getting through! I spent HOURS on hold last year trying to get answers about my donation documentation. Then I found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that got me through to a real IRS agent in less than 20 minutes. They have this priority system that somehow skips the hold queue. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. I had like 3 specific questions about my clothing donation receipts and got clear answers directly from the source.

Well, I'm officially eating my hat! After my skeptical comment, I decided to try Claimyr out of desperation. I had been trying to reach the IRS for THREE WEEKS about a charitable contribution question (had a big donation that needed verification). Got connected in 17 minutes! The IRS agent walked me through exactly what documentation I needed for my situation and cleared up a confusing issue with my previous year's return too. Saved me literal days of stress and probably hundreds in potential incorrect deductions. Shocked this actually worked.

Just to add some practical info on donation values - I volunteer at a nonprofit thrift store and here are some ballpark clothing values we use that the IRS generally accepts: - Men's shirts: $5-10 - Women's tops: $4-12 - Jeans/pants: $5-12 - Coats/jackets: $10-40 - Shoes: $3-9 These are general ranges and condition matters a lot! A worn-out shirt is worth less than a like-new one with tags still on.

Don't forget that it's not just about the amount of donations - it's whether you have enough TOTAL itemized deductions to exceed the standard deduction. My wife and I donate about $1,200 a year but we still take the standard deduction because our mortgage interest and state taxes aren't enough to push us over the threshold.