This charitable tax deduction donations receipts article has been updated with information for the 2023 & 2024 tax years. Prior to my current day job, I worked in fundraising for a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. In that role, the most common questions I received were around tax deductions and donation receipts. For example:
“Do I have to have a receipt to deduct my donation?”
“What amount of donation do I have to have a receipt for?”
“I only need a receipt if my donation is over $250, right?”
I got these types of questions so often, that upon reflection today, it makes me wonder if people avoid itemizing their donations at all, for fear that they might get audited by the IRS. Taking it a step further, are people avoiding donating altogether because they don’t know how to properly document and deduct them? That would truly be a shame.
If you itemize your taxes, you should definitely deduct your charitable contributions!
To help clear up some of the confusion around what SHOULD be an easy topic, I decided to put together a little guide on deducting charitable donations and when you need proper documentation, such as a donation receipt or written acknowledgment.
First off, it’s worth noting that if you don’t itemize (like a large majority of the country), a donation receipt is not needed because you cannot deduct your donation if you claim the standard deduction. In other words, all taxpayers are eligible for a standard deduction, and a small percentage will forego that in favor of itemizing deductions. The standard deductions are as follows:
2023 standard deductions:
2024 standard deductions:
I wrote about this at length, but the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (aka “Republican tax reform”) created a charitable donation deduction crash, because of the increased standard deduction amounts, starting with the 2018 tax year (through 2025).
This dramatically reduced the number of itemized filers (by some estimates from 40% to 11%), which reduced the incentive to make charitable donations (but you still should, because you’re a good person and stuff).
It has been suggested by some that you “bunch donations” from multiple years in to one year in order to be able to itemize them. If everyone follows this strategy, however, it could have disastrous cash flow consequences for charitable organizations.
The universal charitable donation is now expired, sadly.
2020 Update: with the CARES Act legislation providing a number of financial COVID-19 relief measures, there was a new universal donation deduction of up to $300 for non-itemizers who claim the standard deduction (in addition to those who itemize). Additionally, you could claim a deduction of up to 100% of cash donations (previously 60%) in 2020 and 2021.
2021 Update: with the American Rescue Plan Act, the universal donation deduction was increased to $600 for married filing jointly tax filers, remaining $300 for other filers, in 2021.
2022, 2023, 2024 Update: sadly, the universal tax donation deduction has expired for 2022, 2023, 2024, and beyond.
To deduct a charitable contribution, you must file Form 1040 and itemize deductions on Schedule A.
So, if you know 100% you won’t be itemizing, don’t worry about donation receipts. If you aren’t sure, or will itemize, collect the receipts throughout the year. I personally file all receipts in a folder as soon as I make the donation.
It’s also worth noting that you do not need to turn in your receipts when you file your taxes. But you would need them if you were to be audited, to furnish proof of your donation.
If you’re not sure how to place a valuation on your donation, the paid versions of the best tax software typically have some level of estimation built in to the program to help you with this.
You deduct your donation in the year when you actually make it. If you mail a check in 2023 and the charity doesn’t cash it until 2024, your deduction is for 2023. For non-cash donations, you deduct in the year that the property was given. The exception is you can carry over deductions from any year in which you surpass the deduction limits (discussed next), up to a maximum of 5 years.
Most of us will never have to worry about this, but there is an IRS maximum charitable donation limit. Essentially, if your donations are 20% or less of your adjusted gross income, you do not need to worry about hitting the limit. There are a few exceptions where you can go up to 30%, 50%, or 60% of your AGI, and if you approach those levels, you should read the deduction limits section of IRS form 526 for more information. Generally, you can deduct:
The IRS has a tax-exempt organization search to find if donation you would like to make to the would be tax deductible to that organization. The organization must be designated as a 501(c)(3).
Note that donations to political entities are not tax deductible. Sorry, Super PACS.
Whether you need a receipt or not depends on whether the donation is cash or non-cash, and the amount, or value of the donation.
If you deduct a cash donation, regardless of amount, you must keep some form of documentation. But there’s an important distinction between donations under and over $250.
One key takeaway is this – never give actual “cash” as part of a cash donation. Use your credit card or check, so you have record in case the IRS comes calling.
Varying rules apply, based on the level of donation.
For more on deducting charitable contributions, check out IRS form 526 or publication 1771.
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