How much can I claim for donations to Goodwill without receipts?
Generally donations over $5k require documentation. But you should have an approximate list. You can easily get a receipt. They dont put value but if you should have some sort of list. 3 bags of clothes, box of pots pans etc. When my sister and i started clearing out my moms hoarder/shopaholic house i found a post that mentioned app called its deductible by turbo tax. Im sure there are others and i dont particularly endorse it; its just what i happen to use. Its a very convenient way to tally and value your donations. The $5 to the red kettle,the $20 fundraiser etc adds up in a year. The values are a lot higher than on other sites but I figure they must know what theyre doing! My theory is that to encourage recycling and reusing the irs is generous with the donation value of stuff. I found the effort it takes to tally, say, 10 shirts, 5 pants, a set of dishes etc. adds up to a lot more than my previous bag of clothes $50. A 30 gallon bag of clothes averages $500. We have easily donated over 100 bags and have barely made a dent. since we have so much volume we easily hit the $5k max for both my sister and i. We keep it under that since its a lot of donations throughout the year instead of one $5k donation and we want to get it gone. with clothes especially, your average garage sale price is .25 to $1 and they dont sell anyway. Youre way ahead getting a refund, even for a few hundred bucks in the 10 to 12% bracket. It also makes it easier to move the stuff along if i feel im getting something in return for it instead of just giving all these treasures away.