Comments on: How to Value Your Clothing Donation

By: Carol Peacock

Carol Peacock — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:07:07 +0000

I have several hundred videos and want to donate them. I have found a few places that will take the videos but need to put a value on them. Individually, how much would each video be worth?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:02:54 +0000

hello – I’m too lazy to write down exactly the brand/make of the items (esp. clothes) – so with the popularity and ease of DIGITAL CAMERAS, a simple snapshot of the donated item(s) could serve as evidence enough.. right? this is my technique (as well as holding on to the slip at the local goodwill)

By: Funny about Money

Funny about Money — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 18:31:21 +0000

Thanks for the lead to the IRS pubs–I had no idea!

It’s a day late & a dollah short for me: I’ve already donated $390 worth of clothes (by my estimate). I figured the fairest way to figure their value was according to what a friend and I got at a recent yard sale–between $5 and $10 per item, depending on its condition and quality.

Never thought of writing down the designer name. I listed the loot by category: jeans, better slacks, knit shirts, better shirts, skirts, dresses, etc., and assigned a per-item dollar value to each category. So, say five pairs of jeans in good condition ($5 apiece) would come to $25. I put this list in Excel, printed out two copies with the date and the name of the charitable organization, offered them a copy (they didn’t need it), and then stapled the receipt to my copy and stashed it in the tax documents file. I can’t imagine an IRS auditor demanding to see photos of your pile of cast-off clothing — certainly not if you’ve assigned a reasonable price to the junk.

By: Emily

Emily — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:43:01 +0000

Lots of great ideas here! One thing a past coworker told me she would do is whenever she would donate something of slightly significant value, she would take a Polaroid of it and write her estimated value of it on the white part of the picture. That way, at the end of the year, it was easy for her to keep track of everything she gave away. She said it was also great proof in case you are audited. Polaroid just stopped making its film, but now that everyone has a digital camera, it’s easy to take pics of every item and store it on a folder on your computer.

By: jim

jim — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:20:19 +0000

The more information you can provide, the better.

By: jim

jim — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:19:31 +0000

Yep, you’re right, I missed the don’t in that one. Thanks!

By: mbhunter

mbhunter — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 06:39:54 +0000

You wrote: “I think philanthropic donations should be deductible even if you itemize but those are the rules.”

Isn’t that missing a “don’t”?

And just to be clear, the $500 limit for filing Form 8283 applies to all non-cash donations, not just clothing.

By: nickel

nickel — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:51:18 +0000

Whenever I do a bulk donation to Goodwill, I write up my own itemized list and then write on the receipt “See attached list”. Not sure how audit-proof this would be, but it’s better than nothing.

By: BillyOceansEleven

BillyOceansEleven — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:34:18 +0000

I’d highly recommend using one of the software programs like It’s Deductible. That one is available online now for free if I’m not mistaken. It usually pulls in values higher than what I would initially expect, but I’ll make the wild assumption that a company publishing tax software would do reasearch to justify those valuations before putting it out there.

As for the receipt you get, I’ve found it depends on where you donate and who is working. If I bring stuff to Salvation Army, they’ll usually put a generic description like “2 bags clothing”. My nearest Goodwill location usually just gives me a blank signed receipt and I can fill in whatever I like. Either way I usually prepare my own detail listing with valuations for each item and staple it to the receipt provided. If it is a lot of stuff, I’ll also take a picture of the pile for my records.

By: Eric J. Nisall

Eric J. Nisall — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:04:48 +0000

I think the last line you wrote was the most poignant, Jim. The day after Christmas I wrote a post about how I got people to give me their unwanted items so that I could bring them all to Goodwill, but I didn’t take a receipt because I just wanted to do something completely selfless for a change (not that there’s anything wrong with taking the deduction-I’ve done it plenty of times in the past).

One thing that I have seen, especially with the IRS cracking down on the valuation side of the deduction in recent years, is that many people are starting to take the documentation more seriously, specifically when it comes to higher-end items such as cars and furniture. They are taking pictures of the items with the time stamp on for further proof, as well as any documentation relating to the purchase and/or any maintenance on the items. The same could probably be done for clothing, particularly higher-end and designer label garments.

By: CUMarketer

CUMarketer — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:39:24 +0000

TurboTax has a great site where you can record your donations throughout the year. I’ve been using it for all my donations and it’s so easy! Check it out!

http://turbotax.intuit.com/personal-taxes/itsdeductible/
________________________________

TurboTax ItsDeductible Online provides everything you need to keep track of your donations — for FREE

- Easily Tracks Thousands of Donated Items
as well as mileage, cash, bonds, and mutual funds.

- Provides Resale Values for Your Non-Cash Donations based on the style and condition of the item.

- Instantly Imports to TurboTax* at Tax Time
and fills out the right tax forms for you.

- Add Donations any Time 24/7, 365 days a year, and save the information on our secure servers.

- Helps Reduce Your Risk of an Audit with values based on IRS guidelines.

- Get Fast Answers to Your Donation Questions for Free with TurboTax Live Community.

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:50:26 +0000

Thanks for the links to the valuation guides. We donated a lot of ’stuff’ this year so those will be handy for us.

By: jim

jim — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:09:45 +0000

I haven’t donated to Goodwill so i don’t have an example, but that’s the actual receipt. You can write in what you donated.

By: SK

SK — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:05:06 +0000

Very nice post at the right time. When I donated “Stuff” at my local Goodwill they handed me over a yellow presigned and dated slip. Is that the actual receipt or they should have given me a proper receipt with details of what I donated? Can you post a sample image of it alongside your post that would help.
Rgrds SK