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(similar but NOT identical to How can I calculate the value of donated clothing for tax purposes? )

My wife donated several boxes full of old clothing to Goodwill, and calculated the total thrift shop value as $710.00.

I entered that into TurboTax and it asked me for a cost basis. I checked online + found Form 8283 (for total donations of >$500) and sure enough, it asks for date acquired and cost basis.

What can I do to report this, when we have no idea what the total cost basis was, only that it was almost certainly more than $1500 and more than 1 year ago?

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Jason S
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3 Answers3

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For the date you are permitted to use "various".

For the cost basis, you need to make an estimate. For clothing and household goods I usually assume that the donated value is 30 - 50% of the cost basis.

Alex B
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Based on your comment on Alex's answer that you donated 147 items, it seems that you have good records for what was donated. Just estimate the purchase value. If pants cost $40 today, they probably were $40 a few years ago. This shouldn't take you more then 10 or 15 minutes to do if you put everything in a spreadsheet. Then keep the spreadsheet with your tax records.

The IRS is interested in determining if the value went up for the donated item. In the case of clothes, they definitely went down in value.

In future years split the donated clothing across several charities, that way each is under $500.

mhoran_psprep
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The Form 8283 instructions say:

Column (f). Do not complete this column for property held at least 12 months or publicly traded securities. Keep records on cost or other basis.

If this was old clothing, you don't need to fill in that field, despite what TurboTax says. Now it's possible this may red flag you, but the instructions seem clear to me that you cannot enter a value here.

Scott McIntyre
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