Learn More About the Benefits of Donating to Charity

The foundation for charitable giving is altruism, but another great aspect of donating your excess clothing and household goods is that you can give to others while also receiving benefits yourself. Your generous donations of clothing and household items to qualifying charitable organizations can be tax-deductible if you itemize your deductions. It’s your responsibility to calculate and track these contributions and there are multiple tools and resources to help you.

Donation valuation guides will help you accurately assess the value of the items you contribute to charitable causes. A variety of non-profits such as the Salvation Army and Goodwill publish easy-to-use guides that list the values of often-donated items. You can also use online marketplace data to determine what your items might sell for online. The tax-processing software TurboTax even offers tools to help you get your maximum deduction.

There are a few tips to keep in mind when donating items to ensure a smooth process when sorting out your tax deductions. The foremost thing to remember is to always get a copy of a receipt when you donate those used clothing items and household goods. You can keep these receipts with pictures of the donated goods and the valuation information you used to determine their market value.

And finally, to make things easy, Donation Town has compiled some of the most helpful donation value guides published by many top charities that you trust and love to support such as Salvation Amy, Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul, The Arc of San Francisco, and Volunteers of America. These resources help you rest easy that you are helping others and getting the maximum tax deduction.

With all of this information, assisting worthy organizations and causes, receiving a tax deduction, and putting those extra items to good use is smart and easy!