How much is too much for charitable donations on tax returns?

Does bunching donations work? Like could they donate double next year and nothing this year to get over the standard deduction threshold? I heard some people do this but not sure if it's allowed.

Yes, "bunching" charitable contributions is completely legitimate and can be a smart tax strategy. Instead of giving a consistent amount each year, you concentrate or "bunch" multiple years of planned donations into a single tax year. This can push your itemized deductions over the standard deduction threshold for that year, allowing you to claim the tax benefit. For other years when you don't make large donations, you simply take the standard deduction. This strategy works particularly well with donor-advised funds, where you can make a large contribution in one year for the tax deduction, but distribute the actual grants to charities over several years.

Does it work for donations of clothes and household items too? I've got bags of stuff I've been meaning to donate but the valuation part always confuses me.

How does it handle recurring donations? I set up monthly giving to several organizations and trying to gather all those receipts is a nightmare. Does it connect to email somehow to find them?

Yes, it absolutely works for clothing and household item donations! It provides valuation guidance based on condition and quality to help determine fair market value. It even has specific categories for different types of items to make valuation easier. For recurring donations, that's actually one of its best features. The system can connect to your email (with permission of course) and automatically identify donation receipts, including recurring ones. It consolidates them by organization and gives you total amounts for each charity. Saved me hours of searching through my inbox trying to find all those monthly confirmation emails.

Wait, this sounds too good to be true. How does this actually work? Do they just call and wait on hold for you or something?

Sounds like a paid service to do something you could do yourself. I've never had an issue getting through to a charity - they WANT to talk to their donors. This seems unnecessary.

They use technology that navigates phone trees and waits on hold for you. When a real person answers, you get a call connecting you directly to that person. It saves you from wasting time listening to hold music or repeatedly calling back. It's definitely something you could do yourself if you have unlimited time and patience. But when you're trying to get tax documents before the filing deadline and the charity's phone lines are jammed with other people doing the same thing, having a service that handles the wait can be a lifesaver. I spent 3 days trying to get through on my own before using this. Sometimes the value is in not having to do something frustrating yourself.

What about political donations? I also gave about $1,500 to various campaigns last year - I'm guessing those aren't deductible either?

Political contributions are indeed not tax-deductible. This includes donations to political campaigns, political action committees (PACs), political parties, and organizations that primarily engage in political activities. The IRS specifically excludes these from qualifying as charitable contributions. This is a common misconception since you're giving money to support a cause you believe in, but the tax code treats political and charitable giving differently. The same applies to lobbying organizations, even if they're advocating for issues you consider charitable in nature.

I regularly donate 10-12% of my income and haven't had issues. Keep good records and you'll be fine. The IRS typically starts looking more closely at charitable deductions when they're unusually large compared to income (like 30%+) or if there are other red flags.