A charitable donation almost never changes your tax due or refund all by itself. First, your donation does not count "dollar for dollar"--it is calculated by a percentage based on your tax bracket. You need a LOT of other itemized deductions like mortgage interest or property taxes, medical expense, etc. to itemize and exceed your standard deduction.
Your itemized deductions have to be more than your standard deduction before you will see a change in your tax owed or tax refund. The deductions you enter do not necessarily count “dollar for dollar;” many of them are subject to meeting thresholds (for example: only the amount of your medical deductions that are over 10% of your AGI or over 7.5% if you are 65 or older are “counted”) or are calculated by a percentage of what you entered. The software program uses all the IRS rules that apply to the expenses you enter, and it tells you if you have enough to use your itemized deductions or if using the standard deduction is more advantageous for you. Here are the Standard Deductions for 2016
Your standard deduction lowers your taxable income. It is not a refund
2016 Standard Deductions
Single $6300 (65 or older + $1550)
Married Filing Separately $6300 (65 or older + $1250)
Married Filing Jointly $12,600 (65 or older + $1250@)
Head of Household $9250 (65 or older + $1550)
A charitable donation almost never changes your tax due or refund all by itself. First, your donation does not count "dollar for dollar"--it is calculated by a percentage based on your tax bracket. You need a LOT of other itemized deductions like mortgage interest or property taxes, medical expense, etc. to itemize and exceed your standard deduction.
Your itemized deductions have to be more than your standard deduction before you will see a change in your tax owed or tax refund. The deductions you enter do not necessarily count “dollar for dollar;” many of them are subject to meeting thresholds (for example: only the amount of your medical deductions that are over 10% of your AGI or over 7.5% if you are 65 or older are “counted”) or are calculated by a percentage of what you entered. The software program uses all the IRS rules that apply to the expenses you enter, and it tells you if you have enough to use your itemized deductions or if using the standard deduction is more advantageous for you. Here are the Standard Deductions for 2016
Your standard deduction lowers your taxable income. It is not a refund
2016 Standard Deductions
Single $6300 (65 or older + $1550)
Married Filing Separately $6300 (65 or older + $1250)
Married Filing Jointly $12,600 (65 or older + $1250@)
Head of Household $9250 (65 or older + $1550)
I n case you haven't noticed it is now 2019 filling season. What are the numbers for 2019
When the Answer Xchange migrated over to Real Money Talk a lot of old posts were brought over with June 2019 dates. The above is one of the very old ones.
2019 Standard Deduction Amounts
Single $12,200 (+ $1650 65 or older)
Married Filing Separate $12,200 (+ $1300 if 65 or older)
Married Filing Jointly $24,400 (+ $1300 for each spouse 65 or older)
Head of Household $18,350 (+ $1650 for 65 or older)
Look on line 9 of your 2019 Form 1040 to see your itemized/standard deduction amount