How to Track Charitable Donations for Tax Time

There are several ways to keep track of your charitable deductions. One way is to make lists of what you donate to charities, and then calculate the value of what they are worth. A better way is to take advantage of free programs that are available on the internet to track charitable deduction and tabulate them for your tax return. Turbo Tax has a free service called It's Deductible. This service will allow you to enter all of the items that you donate to charity over the year.

How to Keep Track of Charitable Donations: Using It'sDeductible

The donation tracking program has all kinds of household items in it. You search by category or keyword. A list of items appears, and you select what you donated, and the condition. The program automatically assigns a value to the item, which you can see. You no longer have to guess at the value of an item when you donate it.

How to Use It's Deductible

It's Deductible is available on the internet at the Turbo Tax website. To start using the program, you just need to sign up for a free user name and password. You can log in and add donations at any time. The system will keep tabs of the resale value of your items for tax time. You can later print out this information for your tax records.

If you use Turbo Tax, the process of getting a tax refund for your charitable donations is even easier. In the process of filling out your tax return, Turbo tax will ask you if you use the It's Deductible program. Turbo Tax will then ask you for your user name and password. Once logged in, it will transfer all of the data you entered throughout the year. This includes dates, items you donated, their condition, and their resale value. All of this is put into your tax return, and the proper forms are filled out for you. It is an easy way to get a better tax refund.

It's Deductible: If You Choose Not to Use

If you are wary of technology, or just don't have access, proceed with caution. The IRS has been paying more attention to charitable deductions in recent years. Make sure that you keep an accurate log if you are saving and recording the information by hand. In addition, consider taking a day to visit your local library or other resource for computer access. That way you can research the resale value of the items you donated. Most things are not worth much. It is the accumulation of stuff that you donate over the year that makes it worthwhile.