Donated 22 - 42 gallon bags of clothing to Salvation Army at once, are we out of luck for correct amount of tax credit?

[skeetshooter1958]

Hi, sorry for the long question above.

My uncle recently passed away. We cleaned out his house and he had a TON of clothes for himself and he still had all of the clothes from his wife that died a year and a half previous.

Needless to say, we should have looked up how to claim our tax credit before just making 2 truckload trips to the Salvation Army and dropping them off.

The Salvation Army attendant gave us a receipt saying we dropped off clothes and shoes that were in good condition - then gave my father a "valuation" list for us to go through and figure up how much everything would be.

As I said 95% of these clothes were in excellent condition and at least 10% were brand new and still had the tags attached... I did not know that we had to make a list of each item or take pictures like a lot of people have stated they had done in the past.

From what I have figured by using the ItsDeductible software - just my uncle's clothing alone - is close to $1900 in worth. I haven't started on my Aunt's clothing yet.

Did we botch this whole thing up? Are we even able to claim anything for charity tax credit since we didn't itemize and outline our contributions since it's totaling so much? I would need to tell my parents to add that this came from my uncle's house so that would be inheritance I guess? I have no idea.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I wish I had done research before the donation took place, but we live in a very small community and all the people told us was to load it up - take it the salvation army - get the receipt and write how much we thought it was worth based on the valuation list we were given... now that I check to make sure... I think we severely messed up. 

Thanks again.

[Hal_Al]

The chances of being questioned by the IRS are low. You'll get a letter from them asking for documentation of the deduction.

Yes, make a list of what all you think you contributed and write the estimated value out beside them to document what you donated.

No, you don't need purchase receipts. You are allowed to deduct the fair market value (FMV) OR original cost, which ever is less. That's the only reason you're asked about original cost. For the type of stuff you donated, it's always FMV. For inherited property, you "original cost" is FMV. 

The $500 at a time rule is meaningless. It isn't going to put off the IRS, which goes by total

[skeetshooter1958]

Thank you so much, I appreciate all the advice and help on this subject! 🙂 I will inform mom and dad and help them document what we can remember. I will document mine better when I take my truck load off :). Thanks for clearing up the $500 thing that I read as well. Hope you have a wonderful day and thanks again! I feel much better about all of this now!

[drsben]

I itemize my contributions of bags of clothes by making a complete list of all the clothing, linens, etc. if you list then you can estimate the value of each. with 24-42 bags of clothes you should have a LOT of deductions.

[Hal_Al]

Yes & no on the mess up. Go ahead and take your deduction based on your estimates. If you get audited, you may lose some of your deduction, but a receipt  for "22 bags of clothing" has some value.

[skeetshooter1958]

Thank you so much for your reply. I appreciate any and all help with this as I do not understand all that goes into donating, I just know from reading other posts, we obviously didn't do it correctly hah.

Well, they didn't say it was 22 bags of clothing on the Salvation Army receipt. 😕 They just noted clothes and shoes and something else all in good condition. How will the audit process happen if it does? Should I make a list of what all we think we contributed and write the salvation army prices out beside them to document what we donated?

Also, I saw in another post that it asks how the items were acquired and something about it asking for receipts for original purchase price? Will all that be needed since we don't know the actual purchase prices of the items since we are donating from my Uncle's possessions? Also, I saw someone else say something about only donating $500 at a time? What is the purpose of that and if I donate my own things - should I follow that rule or donate more even if it's more - as long as I document and take pictures (in bulk [a lot of items in one picture] photos) of each item?