What's the max donation amount I can claim on taxes without needing a receipt?

Tax professional here! This is actually a common area of confusion. Here's what you need to know: The IRS allows you to deduct charitable donations if you itemize deductions on Schedule A (rather than taking the standard deduction). For donations under $250, you don't need to have a receipt ON HAND, but you should still have some record of the donation (bank statement, credit card statement, etc.) in case of an audit. For any single donation of $250 or more, you MUST have written acknowledgment from the charity. This is a hard rule - not something you can just skip because "you probably won't get audited." Your tax preparer is giving you risky advice. While the chances of audit may be low, if you are audited and claim donations over $250 without proper documentation, those deductions will be disallowed and you'll owe back taxes plus possible penalties.

Just wanted to share my experience with this exact situation! I was struggling with missing donation receipts last year and found this amazing service called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped me understand exactly what documentation I needed for my charitable donations. They analyzed my situation and explained that while I didn't need formal receipts for donations under $250, I still needed some form of substantiation for ALL donations. The tool also helped me understand what documentation would be acceptable for different donation amounts and even helped me draft letters to send to charities requesting proper acknowledgments for larger donations. Saved me so much stress when I realized I was missing proper documentation for a $300 donation I made!

Ok I have to admit I was wrong about taxr.ai. I decided to try it out of curiosity after my last comment and it was actually really helpful. I had a bunch of missing documentation for donations I made throughout the year (some cash, some goods) and wasn't sure what I needed for each. The system actually analyzed everything and created a personalized list of what documentation I needed for each donation. What surprised me was it found a few donations where I had partial documentation but not everything required by the IRS. For one donation over $250, I had the receipt but it was missing the "no goods or services" statement the IRS requires. Never would have caught that on my own! Definitely more useful than I expected.

If you're having trouble getting receipts from charities or need to talk to the IRS about donation documentation requirements, I highly recommend using Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I spent WEEKS trying to get through to the IRS about a charitable donation issue on my return last year - constant busy signals and disconnections until I found this service. Claimyr got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes when I'd been trying for days on my own. The agent was able to clarify exactly what documentation I needed for different donation types and amounts. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - it's basically a service that navigates the IRS phone tree for you and calls you back when they have an agent on the line.

I need to publicly eat my words here. After posting my skeptical comment yesterday, I decided to try Claimyr anyway since I was desperate to talk to someone at the IRS about donation documentation requirements. I had a $400 donation I made but lost the receipt and needed to know my options. Got connected to an IRS agent in about 20 minutes, which is LIGHT YEARS faster than my previous attempts. The agent actually explained that for donations over $250, there's no way around needing the written acknowledgment from the charity, but helped me understand exactly what information needed to be in the letter and suggested I contact the charity directly to request a replacement. Saved me from potentially claiming a deduction I couldn't substantiate. Amazing service - I'm honestly still shocked it worked.

Friendly reminder that the standard deduction for 2025 is $13,850 for single filers and $27,700 for married filing jointly. Unless your total itemized deductions (including those donations) exceed these amounts, this whole discussion is kind of moot since you'd just take the standard deduction anyway!

I once claimed about $400 in donations without receipts and got audited. The IRS disallowed the entire deduction. I learned my lesson the hard way! Now I keep ALL receipts regardless of amount.

This is such valuable information from everyone! As someone who's been pretty casual about donation record-keeping, I'm realizing I need to get more organized. One thing I'm curious about - for those smaller donations under $250 where you don't need formal receipts, what exactly counts as "adequate records"? I made several $50-100 donations throughout the year, mostly online, and I have the email confirmations and credit card statements. Would that be sufficient documentation if I ever got audited? Also, @Mei Lin makes a really good point about the standard deduction. I should probably calculate whether itemizing would even benefit me before stressing too much about all this documentation. But it's still good to know the rules regardless!

Just to add some practical perspective here - I work as a bookkeeper and see this issue come up constantly with small business owners and individual taxpayers. The confusion around donation documentation is totally understandable! Here's what I always tell my clients: even for donations under $250 where you don't technically need formal receipts, having SOME documentation is crucial. Bank statements, canceled checks, credit card statements, or email confirmations all work. The key is being able to prove the date, amount, and that it went to a qualified charitable organization. For your $650 in donations, if they were all individual donations under $250 each, you're in the "easier" category documentation-wise. But definitely don't just claim them without ANY records - that's asking for trouble if you get selected for audit. One more tip: if you're missing documentation for any donations, most legitimate charities are very helpful about providing replacement acknowledgment letters if you contact them directly. They deal with this request all the time, especially around tax season. Just be prepared to provide them with approximate dates and amounts to help them locate your donations in their system. Your tax preparer's casual attitude about documentation is honestly concerning. Good tax professionals emphasize proper record-keeping, not ways to cut corners that could get you in trouble later!