If you itemize, you can generally write off cash donations to public charities up to 60% of your adjusted gross income, with lower caps of 30% or 20% for gifts of appreciated property and for contributions to private foundations. How much you can write off in donations on your taxes depends on three things: whether your total itemized deductions beat the standard deduction, what you gave and to whom, and (starting in 2026) whether your giving clears a new 0.5% AGI floor. Anything above the annual cap doesn’t vanish; it carries forward for up to five years.
You Have To Itemize First
Charitable gifts only lower your tax bill if you itemize on Schedule A instead of taking the standard deduction.1Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Schedule A Form 1040 This is where most people lose the deduction before the percentage caps ever come into play. For 2026 the standard deduction is:2Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026
- $16,100 for single filers
- $32,200 for married couples filing jointly
- $24,150 for heads of household
Your donations add tax value only when your combined itemized deductions (state and local taxes capped at $10,000, mortgage interest, medical expenses, and charitable gifts) exceed that number. Taxpayers who are 65 or older or blind get additional standard deduction amounts, which raises the bar further.3Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 551 Standard Deduction
The New 0.5% AGI Floor for 2026
Starting in 2026, even itemizers face a new threshold created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Only the portion of your charitable giving that exceeds 0.5% of your AGI counts. On an AGI of $200,000, the first $1,000 in donations produces no deduction. On an AGI of $500,000, the first $2,500 is off the table. This floor is new, and it catches moderate givers hardest because a larger share of their gift falls below the line.
How Much You Can Deduct: The AGI Percentage Caps
Once you clear the standard deduction and the 0.5% floor, your deduction is capped as a percentage of AGI. The cap depends on what you gave and where it went.4Internal Revenue Service. Charitable Contribution Deductions
Cash Gifts
Cash given to a public charity, church, school, hospital, or government entity is deductible up to 60% of AGI. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act made this limit permanent in 2025. Cash given to a private non-operating foundation drops to 30% of AGI.5Internal Revenue Service. Publication 526 – Charitable Contributions
Appreciated Property Held More Than a Year
Stock, real estate, or other long-term assets that have gained value can generally be deducted at full fair market value, and you skip tax on the built-in gain. The tradeoff is a lower cap: 30% of AGI for gifts to public charities, and 20% of AGI for gifts to private non-operating foundations.6Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 506 Charitable Contributions
There is an election worth knowing about. If you give appreciated property to a public charity, you can voluntarily reduce your deduction to cost basis instead of fair market value, and in exchange use the 50% AGI ceiling instead of 30%.5Internal Revenue Service. Publication 526 – Charitable Contributions That trade makes sense when basis is close to market value, or when the tighter cap would push a large piece into carryover.
Ordinary-Income Property
Inventory, art you created yourself, or anything held a year or less is deductible only up to your cost basis, not market value. Contributions of this kind to a public charity fall under the 50% AGI limit.
How the Caps Interact
When you make more than one type of gift in the same year, the 60% limit for cash applies first, then the 30% or 20% limit for appreciated property, and the non-cash portion cannot push your total to a public charity above 50% of AGI. The math gets tangled fast when you mix gift types in a single year.
What Happens if You Give More Than the Cap
Amounts above the annual cap aren’t lost. The excess carries forward for up to five more tax years, and each carryover keeps its original character: cash that hit the 60% ceiling stays subject to the 60% rule in future years.7eCFR. 26 CFR 1.170A-10 – Charitable Contributions Carryovers of Individuals Anything you can’t use within five years disappears. If you make an unusually large gift, watch the timeline.
Rules That Change What Your Gift Is Worth
The headline caps assume you can claim the full value of what you gave. Several rules cut that number down.
Vehicles, Boats, and Airplanes
For donated vehicles worth more than $500, your deduction is generally limited to what the charity actually gets when it sells the vehicle, not the Blue Book value.8Internal Revenue Service. IRS Guidance on Vehicle Donations The charity must send Form 1098-C within 30 days of the sale showing the sale price.9Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1098-C No 1098-C, no deduction above $500.
The Related-Use Rule for Tangible Property
Artwork, collectibles, or equipment only qualify for a fair-market-value deduction if the charity uses the item in a way that relates to its exempt mission. A painting hung in a museum’s gallery qualifies. That same painting donated to a food bank that sells it at auction gets you a deduction limited to what you originally paid. The rule doesn’t apply to stocks, bonds, or other intangibles.
Clothing and Household Goods
Used clothing and household items must be in good condition or better to produce any deduction, and the value is what a thrift store would actually charge, not what you paid at retail.6Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 506 Charitable Contributions Inflating the value of a bag of used clothes is a well-known audit trigger.
Quid Pro Quo Gifts
When you pay more than $75 and get something back (a gala dinner, event tickets, a tote), only the amount above the fair market value of what you received is deductible.10Internal Revenue Service. Charitable Contributions – Quid Pro Quo Contributions Pay $200 for a charity dinner where the meal is worth $60, and your deduction is $140. Token items like a mug or a bumper sticker generally don’t count against you.
Volunteer Miles
You can’t deduct the value of your time, but out-of-pocket expenses do count. The charitable mileage rate for 2026 is a flat 14 cents per mile, set by statute.11Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Standard Mileage Rates (Notice 2026-10) Parking and tolls come on top.
Who Doesn’t Qualify
Some giving produces no deduction at all. Gifts directly to individuals are never deductible, no matter how deserving the recipient.6Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 506 Charitable Contributions Neither are contributions to political campaigns, PACs, or Section 501(c)(4) social-welfare organizations.12Internal Revenue Service. Donations to Section 501(c)(4) Organizations Gifts to foreign charities generally don’t qualify unless a treaty allows it or the money flows through a qualifying U.S. organization. The recipient must be a 501(c)(3), and you can verify status through the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search.13Internal Revenue Service. Tax Exempt Organization Search
The Over-70½ Workaround: Qualified Charitable Distributions
If you’re 70½ or older, you can transfer up to $111,000 per person in 2026 directly from a traditional IRA to a qualifying charity, and the amount is excluded from your taxable income. Qualified charitable distributions skip the itemizing hurdle entirely, which is unusual among charitable tax benefits. A QCD also counts toward your required minimum distribution for the year.
The transfer has to go straight from the IRA custodian to the charity. If the funds pass through your hands, they become taxable income. QCDs aren’t available from 401(k)s, 403(b)s, or Roth IRAs. Each spouse in a married couple can make QCDs up to the $111,000 individual limit from their own IRA. A separate one-time provision permits up to $55,000 from an IRA to fund a charitable remainder trust or charitable gift annuity.
Documentation That Keeps the Deduction
A deduction without records is one you’ll lose in an audit, and the requirements scale with the size of the gift. You need everything in hand before you file, including extensions.
Every cash donation, no matter how small, needs a bank record, canceled check, or a receipt from the charity showing date, amount, and organization name. Payroll deductions need a pay stub or W-2. A cash drop in the collection plate with no receipt is technically non-deductible.
Any single gift of $250 or more, cash or property, requires a written acknowledgment from the charity that lists the amount or describes the property, states whether you received anything in return, and gives a good-faith estimate of that item’s value.14Internal Revenue Service. Charitable Contributions – Written Acknowledgments A canceled check is not enough. Without the acknowledgment in hand before you file, the deduction is gone.
Non-cash donations above $500 require Form 8283 with your return.15Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8283 – Noncash Charitable Contributions Claimed values above $5,000 for a single item or group of similar items also require a qualified appraisal from an independent appraiser; the charity itself cannot appraise.16Internal Revenue Service. Charitable Organizations – Substantiating Noncash Contributions For artwork valued above $20,000, attach a copy of the appraisal to the return. Publicly traded securities are exempt from the appraisal requirement.
Penalties for Overvaluing Property
Claim a value at 150% or more of the correct amount, and if the overstatement causes you to underpay tax by more than $5,000, you owe a 20% penalty on the underpaid tax. Claim 200% or more of the correct value and the penalty doubles to 40%.17Internal Revenue Service. Publication 561 – Determining the Value of Donated Property These sit on top of the additional tax itself, and they’re the practical reason a qualified appraisal earns its cost on high-value property gifts.