In the spirit of decluttering I have a ton of stuff I'm getting rid of. Now the age old question- sell or donate? I am leaning towards donations due to ease and speedieness of getting it out of here. DH says that if we meet our $10,000ish deduction then everything after than is almost a 1 to 1 of $$ donated to $$ back. Does anyone know if this is anywhere near correct? If that is the case then it makes total sense to me to donate as we should be well over that number in deductions. If not, then it may be worth trying to sell or even take to Once Upon a Child just to get the cash.

Any opinions??

Thanks!!

Personally we sell. I view a donation as a donation and never take the tax write off they offer.

That being said if your donations are over $750 ina calendar year, you need to very carefully document the item, it's new retail cost and it's donated value. Way to much work for me.

Best of luck on whatever you deceide.

I think it depends on if you want to try and get the money, or if you want to just be rid of the problem quickly. In the past I did yard sales, but it was just me for the whole thing, setting up, running, and taking down, and waaaay too much work for what we made, on top of the fact the stuff then sat around in the garage for ages. Now I just donate it somewhere. They come and pick it up for me and leave the receipt for tax reasons. I don't feel bad for claiming a tax deduction on that sort of thing, because there are bunches of occasions I do things in a year's time and don't claim it on my taxes.

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"And the state of his bathroom -- I'm not one to gossip, but there are things crusted on his sink that have not simply developed intelligent life but have in all probability by now evolved their own political systems." Cain describes Abel in in SANDMAN #70

you need to document everything you donated if you are itemizing and going to use multiple reciepts. you also need to document weather it was in excellent condition, new with tags or used condition then you can only deduct 15% of retail value if it is in mint perfect condition.. now that said that is for auditing purposes. it depends on how much you are claiming you are donating because most places give you a reciept that gives a generic discription of the items you donated such as 1 box clothing or 1 bag toys ect. so its up to you for auditing purposes to have documentation. if you are only claiming the 500 bucks for 1 reciept your not gonna have to many flags but if you think your gonna claim the maximum you better make a spread sheet of items you donated. also check the irs website about donations it will give you what you can and cannot write off and the amounts allowed.

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SILENCE IS GOLDEN BUT DUCK TAPE IS SILVER.

Your bottom line is also going to depend on your tax bracket. What one person needs to donate to get the maximum write-off will be different than someone else in a different bracket.

It really depends on your tax bracket and amount you donate. I'm no accountant but we donate alot of goods throughout the year and we got back over $4,000 last year for those donations alone. I'm all for donating! I do sell some higher priced stuff on Craigslist for easy cash, but lately I've been so busy I just donate.

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A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

I have in the past. It was easier then trying to sell the peice of junk car.
I agree you have to look at tax brackets also in the since that if you are boarder line it can make a huge difference. We were just into a higher tax bracket and it sucked because if we could have found itemizatiion that would have got us just $1000 lower it would have ment being in a different tax bracket and having to pay a lower rate.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006 &

Organizer of the Coupon Clippers of Tacoma