Same old tale
Agreed. One client even countered with "But I only buy NICE clothes!" However, it is not a terrible burden to tell a client...even one who "cleans out his house"... what is involved to prepare a reasonable, but not excruciatingly painful to prepare, inventory of the items donated. For the run of the mill Goodwill donations, something like x pairs of pants and y dresses and z sweaters is sufficient. For higher value items, such as furniture, most folks have access to a camera to take a simple picture of the item and its condition. It doesn't take a lot of effort to reach a reasonable total FMV based upon the normal sales prices of such items at the Goodwill Store. Store retail price lists are posted, and are generally available at the facility and/or online. I think at one time TurboTax even had a separate software program for coming up with values, but the user also had to denote the condition of the item. My guess is many "perfect condition" items were claimed as opposed to the fairly common "Goodwill put it in the dumpster upon receipt" items.
It is a prudent step in the right direction to have anything in hand other than those little slips of white paper "receipts" they hand out at Goodwill or the Salvation Army. I think a good faith, reasonable record of the items donated will definitely carry some weight with even the most hardened tax auditors. OTOH, dropping items into a curbside box and later claiming excessive dollar amounts of "value" for doing so, even with a Form 8283, may likely be met with...."disallowed!"
As a side note: How often is the person who "can't provide an inventory/list" the same person who shows up with a shoebox full of prescription drug receipts ?? (You KNOW it is true!) That may also be the next door neighbor of the person who bought a 12-foot live Christmas tree at the church bazaar, or even a handful of raffle tickets, and argues that OBVIOUSLY the full amount of such "donations" ... heck, I bet the raffle tickets even show "donation"!! ... as a tax write-off.
Finally, I recently got into a discussion with a non-client (thankfully) who informed me she ALWAYS takes the automatic $500/year donation for non-cash items. Her secondary response...."It must be OK....I've never been audited."
Some days I ponder retirement much more seriously than on other days.
FE
Originally posted by David1980
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It is a prudent step in the right direction to have anything in hand other than those little slips of white paper "receipts" they hand out at Goodwill or the Salvation Army. I think a good faith, reasonable record of the items donated will definitely carry some weight with even the most hardened tax auditors. OTOH, dropping items into a curbside box and later claiming excessive dollar amounts of "value" for doing so, even with a Form 8283, may likely be met with...."disallowed!"
As a side note: How often is the person who "can't provide an inventory/list" the same person who shows up with a shoebox full of prescription drug receipts ?? (You KNOW it is true!) That may also be the next door neighbor of the person who bought a 12-foot live Christmas tree at the church bazaar, or even a handful of raffle tickets, and argues that OBVIOUSLY the full amount of such "donations" ... heck, I bet the raffle tickets even show "donation"!! ... as a tax write-off.
Finally, I recently got into a discussion with a non-client (thankfully) who informed me she ALWAYS takes the automatic $500/year donation for non-cash items. Her secondary response...."It must be OK....I've never been audited."
Some days I ponder retirement much more seriously than on other days.
FE
cabal. 
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