You may deduct the fair market value of items that you donate to a church or registered charity. If the items were bought new, the fair market value will be the price that you paid. If you are audited, you will need a letter of acknowledgment from the church or charity acknowledging your gift, and you will need proof of the value of the items. The church or charity usually will not attest to the value in their acknowledgment letter, so you will want to keep separate proof of the value, such as the receipt.
The CARES act created a special $300 deduction for charity contributions that is not does not require you to itemize your deductions on schedule A. However, this special front page deduction only applies to donations of money (cash, credit card, check). Your item donations may be listed in TurboTax as itemized deductions on schedule A, but in order to actually receive a tax benefit, the total of all your itemized deductions will have to be more than the standard deduction for your filing status.
