The New to You Shoppe provides a donation receipt that is signed and dated by a New 2 You Shoppe volunteer or manager.  It is up to you to list the items you have donated and assigned an appropriate value.  The New 2 You Shoppe does not keep a log of donations.

It’s important to remember that the value of the donated item is not equal to how much money you originally spent on it. Instead, the item is valued at how much it is worth when it is donated. This means that a sweater that was originally purchased for $40 should not be valued at $40 when it is donated a few years later.  Ask yourself how much your item would earn if you were to sell it instead of donating it to a charity.  Keep in mind the deduction is allowed only when the item is in “good” condition or better.

Here are links for two donation tracking/deduction calculator programs:

• Its Deductible, an online program that keeps track of your deductible expenses and donations all-year round and is able to synchronize with TurboTax.
• H&R Block‘s DeductionPro that works with TaxCut software.

If you don’t want want to run or download a program but simply want a a chart of item values, download this PDF document.

The Internal Revenue Service has strict guidelines with regards to estimating value for charitable donations.  Keep in mind the limits set for deductions before estimating the value of items you donate because while some donations do not require additional IRS forms when requesting a deduction, some amounts will certainly result in extra paperwork.  IRS publication 561 specifically addresses how to determine the value of donated property.

• Amounts of $250 require documentation from the charitable organization.
• An IRS Form 8283, Section A is required for charitable donations exceeding $500 that are non-cash donations.
• An IRS Form 8283, Section B is required for charitable donations exceeding $5000 that are non-cash donations.