We gave over $11K to our local church this year. Last year, we gave less, but had a MUCH larger deductible. Why was our charitable giving deduction so low this year?

[adampickens]

Last year our charitable giving to our church was less, but we received a MUCH larger deduction for our gifts as compared to this year.  What has changed to amount to such a dramatic difference in deduction amounts?  Everything else in our filing was much the same as last year, but our charitable donation, even though it was more, gave much less of a deductible.

[Seacrest_Consulting_Inc-]

Hi. 

Charitable deductions are usually limited to 50% of your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI). If your AGI has changed from last year to this year, you may notice that the amount you may deduct is smaller than in previous years. Additionally, in certain circumstances, the deduction can be limited to only 20% or 30% of your AGI.

Below is a link to the IRS website that will hopefully answer your question. Best of Luck.

https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/charitable-contribution-deduction...

[adampickens]

Thank you for the answer.  I checked and we're only at 14% of our AGI for the total gift, so I'm not quite sure what the issue is.  I'll keep digging on the IRS website.