Author Topic: How to track donations  (Read 2366 times)

FastStache

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How to track donations
« on: July 06, 2013, 03:34:38 PM »
I plan on donating a lot of the clothes I have, and things cluttering the house.

What is the best way to keep track of everything so that I can get a tax break? Is what I'm saying even allowed?

Honest Abe

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Re: How to track donations
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2013, 03:39:52 PM »

velocistar237

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Re: How to track donations
« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2013, 04:52:24 PM »
When I've given to Goodwill, they've just given me a blank form. I filled it out, usually just listing the Goodwill prices, and stuck it in a folder for that year's tax forms.

Zamboni

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Re: How to track donations
« Reply #3 on: July 06, 2013, 05:03:52 PM »
Yes, just make a list.  Note the date, place donated, item type, number of items of that type, condition (new, good, fair, poor).  It's important to be detailed with item type, so don't just write 15 shirts.  You might have 5 ladies turtlenecks, 3 men's dress shirts, 6 adult t-shirts, 1 men's sweater.  If it's a book, all you really need is hardback or softback, but if you want to go crazy, and have time to spend, you can look up ISBN's on amazon and see what each items is selling for used on Amazon and also then list the fair market price.  Same for CD's, DVD's.  That's the level of detail you need. Wherever you donate will give you a fairly generic receipt as stated above (5 bags of clothes, for example), but you the list so Turbotax can figure out the amounts for you later.

hybrid

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Re: How to track donations
« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2013, 07:49:46 PM »
+1 for what Honest Abe and Velocistar suggest.  Although I have never done it, you could always take a digital photo of what you donate at the time you donate it, and I would bet you would be more than adequately covered in any kind of audit situation.