I’ll Be Keeping That, Uncle Sam

Posted on November 9, 2007 by Eric 
Filed Under Taxes

That’s a lot of junk!Last month, Clever Dude wrote a great post about how to value the clothing you donate to charity. As we’ve been packing up the house we’ve run across literally hundreds of items that we took one look at and decided it would be better to donate. Clever Dude wrote about a couple of IRS publications you can read to help you value your donations. I have to admit, I enjoy reading IRS publications about as much as I would enjoy a colonoscopy (and in case you are wondering, that is not at all).

I remembered when I was using Turbo Tax a couple years back that I had been offered a chance to buy their software, It’s Deductible, for about $30. So I went off in search of it again.

Lo and behold, the software is now free! And it integrates with Turbo Tax! On top of that, I was able to just login to my Intuit account and everything was tied together.

Nearly everything we had donated (with a few exceptions - check out this stink gun Melissa bought me a long time ago as a prank gift) was in the list and had a value.

We were conservative when it came to quality. We chose medium quality for all but a few items that were in near pristine condition.

This should make doing our taxes that much easier this year. And I feel pretty confident that the values they have chosen are pretty accurate. In addition, we are deciding to give more and more rather than try to sell these things at a garage sale where we might make a few bucks. I’d rather help someone in need, and get a little tax credit, than to get a few extra bucks in my pocket.

Picture by Joe Shlabotnik

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Comments

2 Responses to “I’ll Be Keeping That, Uncle Sam”

  1. Weekly Roundup #3 (Nov 10, 2007) - myinvestingblog.com on November 10th, 2007 10:45 am

    [...] Family issues always can play a role in finance. A Penny Closer examines why it’s better to donate instead of giving to Uncle Sam. ChristianPF again makes the list in showing how to have a debt free Xmas. [...]

  2. The Carnival Of Personal Finance (#126) | Million Dollar Journey on November 12th, 2007 1:34 am

    [...] I'll be Keeping That, Uncle Sam by A Penny Closer [...]

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