Item donations are gifts of some type of goods or some other physical thing that you can actually hold in your hands. Some examples of item donations are:
Clothing
Household items—appliances, housewares, furniture, lawn and garden equipment, books
Electronics—computer equipment, office equipment, TVs, stereo equipment
A car
Stocks and bonds
Art and collectibles
When recording information about an item donation that you made, you can either:
The advantage of listing each item individually is that DeductionPro automatically assigns a value to each item that you enter. If you decide to enter your entire donation as one item instead, you must estimate the value yourself.
To list individual items, such as clothing, household items, and electronics:
Click the Enter Deductions tab to display the Item Donations tab, and then click New Donation.
From the Charity Name drop-down list, select the charity that received your donation, or select Enter New and type the name of a charity (up to 37 characters).
In the Date box, type the date that you made the donation in mm/dd/yyyy format.
Tip: You can also click the calendar icon beside the box to display a calendar from which you can select a date.
From the Entry Type drop-down list, select the method you want to use to enter details for this donation.
To enter details for each item that you donated, select Individual Items, and then click Add Items. Continue to step 5.
To enter your entire donation as one item, select Bulk Donation. For details, see Entering a Bulk Donation.
Tip: If you have donated a bag of clothes and you don’t want to list each item separately, select Bulk Donation from the Entry Type drop-down list. See How do I record my donation of a bag of clothes in DeductionPro? for details.
In the Charity Address box, type the address of the charity, up to 37 characters.
Tip: The address might be the city and state in which the charity is located, or a Web address if you made a donation online.
(Optional) In the Miles box, type the total number of miles traveled to and from the charity.
Tip: If you enter mileage here, DeductionPro automatically enters it as a deduction on the Expenses & Mileage tab.
For each item that you enter, click the category that best fits your donation to display a list of items and their fair market value.
If you are donating stocks or bonds, see Recording Donations of Stocks and Bonds
If you are donating a painting or a collectible item, see Recording Donations of Art and Collectibles
If your item isn’t listed or doesn’t fit into any of the listed categories, click Other at the bottom of the list. For more information about recording an entry for an unlisted item, see What if DeductionPro doesn’t list items that I have donated?
For more information on fair market value, see How does DeductionPro determine fair market value? or IRS Publication 561, Determining the Value of Donated Property.
Next to each item that you have donated, type the quantity you donated in the Qty box under the quality heading that best describes the condition of the item that you are donating.
DeductionPro bases the value of an item on its quality—Like New, Minor Wear, Average Wear, and Heavy Wear. See How do I determine the quality of my donated item? for some guidelines.
Example: Suppose you donated three pairs of jeans—two pairs that have had normal wear and one pair that has hardly been worn—enter "1" in the Qty box under Minor Wear and "2" in the Qty box under Average Wear.
To view a list of the items that you have entered, click Review Entered Items.
To print a list of the items that you have entered, click Print Donation. When the Print Preview window appears, click the printer icon, and then click OK in the Print dialog box.
To delete the entire list of items that you entered, click Delete Donation. If you entered mileage for this donation, DeductionPro will also delete the associated mileage entry on the Expenses & Mileage tab.
When you are done entering items, click Finished.
DeductionPro automatically:
Displays a screen requiring you to enter additional information about the donation if the total value of your donations to the same charity on one date exceeds $500. See Entering Details for Item Donations Over $500 for more information.
Calculates the total value of all the items that you have donated.
Saves your entry and updates Total Deductions and Est. Tax Savings.
To enter another donation, click New Donation.
When you’re done entering donations, click Save.