With the holidays and end of the year coming, now is the time to go through your home and pack up those items that you would like to donate to charity and deduct on this year's tax return.

The items that you donate must be in "good" or better condition to qualify as a deduction.

When you donate your items, remember to get a receipt from the donee organization.  Unfortunately, however, they will not itemize it for you.  That is your task and responsibility in substantiating the charitable deduction.

For your convenience we have a download available for your use in itemizing and valuing your donated items.  Or if you prefer, you can click on the following Salvation Army link for their valuation guide: http://www.satruck.org/donation-value-guide. 

As your tax preparer, the federal government requires us to review the receipts for your charitable donations, so please file them in your current year tax documents to bring with you to your tax appointment.

If your non-cash charitable donations exceed $500, Form 8283 must be filed with your tax return.  This form lists the name and address of the charitable organization, along with date of the contribution, the description of the items and their thrift store value. 

For any single donation that exceeds $500, the method of acquisition and cost basis for the goods must also be reported.

For donations exceeding $5,000, your are required to have an appraisal of the goods by a qualified appraiser.

A few final tips: 

• Only deduct donations made to qualified organizations.
• Raffle tickets are not deductible.
• There is no deduction for donating your time; any out-of-pocket costs, however, are deductible including mileage at 14 cents per mile.

(Click on the following link to go to this IRS tax topic http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc506.html.)