Question about Taxes and Donating

[legacykeeper]

I have a very large donation ready to go. When I spoke with the charity she stated I should do an itemized spread sheet and she would sign and stamp it.

My first question is ... Will this be enough for taxes or do I need to keep all of the receipts?(Receipts would be a major undertaking since some of the beauty items were purchase 5 months ago)

My second question is... What amount do I put for the price of the items, sale prices, shelf prices or the price I paid after coupon (I will never be able to figure that out. I do know most was free or less that $.50)

The best example I can give is the Bayer Meters. I paid $0.00 for these and actually made money on them. The sale price at the time was $14.99 for some and $10.00 for others. The shelf price is approx. 49.99. Which price do I use?

Any help I can get would be welcomed. I plan to drop off the donation on Wednesday morning and need to get this done as soon as possible.

Thank you,
Melissa

[Sylvia]

keep the receipts... then call a tax person to find out what goes on in your state. I think in mine I have to do the actuall price paid. Still others may allow "fair market value"

Either way keep the receipts.

[alfina]

TurboTax creators have an online free service called It's Deductable. It calculates what the value is and how much you are saving on your taxes. You can enter the items you are donating, mileage you drove to donate that stuff and print the list out. Then get a receipt from the charity where you donate and attach your list to it.

TurboTax® ItsDeductible Online - Track Charitable Donations for Tax Deductions.

[lucid]

You should check with a tax professional, but per mine:

You should keep the receipts to document your purchases and the prices of the purchases.

IF you itemize (and for the majority of people it is not worth it to itemize, but it could be for you), you can deduct EITHER the price you paid for the donated item OR the fair market value, whichever is LOWER. So for the meter, you would use the price you paid, which was 0. For some enjoyable late night reading, you can Google and find this info in the tax code.

[legacykeeper]

Thanks so much for everyone's imput. I did the spreadsheet with the sale price before q's and have the receipts to back it up. I'll let my tax person figure it out.