If you have gone through a great decluttering effort and have donated items to your favorite organization, you may want to consider documenting it on your taxes for a deduction. You might be surprised about the type of deduction you can actually get! I have been doing this for years and it has been very beneficial for us.
Now, it used to be that figuring that kind of thing out took a lot of time. I used to create an Excel spreadsheet and then go to the IRS tables to determine what each item was worth. That just took way to long! Then, back in 2005 Intuit came out with a product that did it all for me! That first year, I did the estimation my way and used the software, just to compare. I was shocked! The software took me significantly less time and gave me a BIGGER deduction.
Well, Intuit has now integrated that software into TurboTax. Here is how it works (just focusing on the donation stuff):
TurboTax is loaded with all of the most recent IRS rules regarding donations.
You use pull-down menus to select the type of item (let's say it is a silk blouse)
- woman's blouse
- silk
- long sleeved
Then, you tell the system, it is in poor, fair, good, or excellent condition and the number of items of that category you donated. The system then calculates the value and you enter your next item. The end result is a great itemized listing that is IRS ready!
The one thing I also do is take digital pictures of the items before I donate them (usually a picture of the pile where I can see the items) and keep that with my taxes.
I have been able to have nice deductions, donate to my favorite charities and de-clutter!
