Apologies in advance if this is not the right board. For a long time now, I’ve been using Intuit’s It’s Deductible to track my donations to Goodwill. I just got a notice that they’re discontinuing it. Any suggestions for replacements? What do you use to keep track of the physical item donations to charities?
I use a Google spreadsheet with description of each item and my estimate of what it will go for in a thrift shop or ebay.
Many descriptions are brief - like
“dress shirts - 4 @ $5 each”, $20
“iron”, $15
“toddler toys, 3@$2”, $6
When I drop stuff off at Goodwill or someplace that does receipts, I have a spot for them to sign a printout of the spreadsheet, saying that they received these from me on X date.
I take that (and any receipt) home and file it.
And start a new tab for the next time I donate.
I’m not guaranteeing this is sufficient and will work in case of an audit - just saying that it’s what I do.
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They still have a working web page: https://itsdeductibleonline.intuit.com/
I use them also and I hope they continue.
Wayne
Get receipts when you make a donation and just keep a running tab in a folder.
JLC
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What do you use to keep track of the physical item donations to charities?
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I take the pragmatic approach that by the time I’m ready to get rid of clothing or furniture, it’s worthless. (And we have been taking the standard deduction the last 5 years anyway.)
Bill
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For me, It’s Deductible’s value wasn’t in tracking donations but in assigning value to donated items. But I can understand where Intuit is coming from. The increased standard deduction, as Bill noted, makes charitable donations a non-factor for most average taxpayers. The site costs money to maintain and if there aren’t enough users, it becomes revenue loser and not a contributor.
I am one of those users who donates a lot of things in addition to his cash donations. It is easy to capture your cash donations, through Mint, Quicken, a Google Spreadsheet, etc. But’s harder to assign value to items donated to places like Goodwill. That is the feature I will miss.
Fuskie
Who notes the site will remain operational through the October tax deadline for the 2021 tax season, so his plan is to frontload his itemized donations for 2022 and produce a final report before the site goes offline that he’ll be able to use next year when completing his 2022 tax year filings…
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https://satruck.org/Home/DonationValueGuide
Salvation Army has a list of suggested donation value guide. I’ve used it and just maintain a spreadsheet.
Now that we are past the main clear out, maintaining a spreadsheet isn’t difficult. Although, we are now claiming federal standard deduction, it varies whether we use standard or itemized deduction for state.
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I’ve never seen anyone audited for the small stuff if it’s reasonable. I keep a spreadsheet with dates of donations, a general description of what was donated (Clothes, books, household items is most common) and a reasonable estimate of thrift store value - usually $10 a bag depending on the size of the bag. For the high value things I’ve donated to the historical foundation(mostly books) I keep a spreadsheet with the title, ISBN number, condition and sold price from eBay or equivalent. These were inherited items and over a couple of years ended up being enough over standard deduction that I didn’t have taxable income. I expect to make another large donation later this year as I’m finding more stuff that they would want as I clean out the dusty attic.
Roses, former Licensed Tax Consultant and Enrolled Agent, now retired.
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