Plea for help!

[naruki_oni]

Anyone having any leads on charitable organizations in RI that will pick up heavy furniture, please let me know.

We are moving out at the end of the month, but taking almost nothing with us. I'd hate for the apartment complex to get it all, but I am not going to lug it down from the third floor.

Some really good stuff here.

Comments

How so?

[naruki-oni.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid the tax laws are too complicated for me to understand. We don't have anything to itemize this year, as I was the only one working. I'm not sure we can figure out how to handle her college attendance stuff.

Well

[tigrismus.livejournal.com]

if all your deductions added together are less than the standard deduction, you'd be better off taking the standard. If you are a single filer, your deductions woud have to be over $4,750 to make itemizing worth while. If you're not itemizing, you will get nothing off your taxes for charitable giving.

Re: Well

[blackbyrd2.livejournal.com]

Yep. Generally it takes hefty medical bills or a large mortgage to get you enough deductions to make it worthwhile.
I'm not even sure the medical bills will manage it. I think they have a limit too.

Or of course, if you're in business for yourself, have some nice depreciation and some losses..

Yeh. Your medical bills have to be above 7% of your taxable gross

[thewrongcrowd.livejournal.com]

before they can be itemized. And there are limitations on what can be deducted. It's designed to force as many people as possible into taking the standardized deduction.

I believe medical bills

[tigrismus.livejournal.com]

have to be over 7.5% of your adjusted gross income, which is a pretty hefty chunk, and even then you can only deduct the portion that exceeds that. But mortgage interest and property taxes can make it worthwhile even for some with small mortgages. Plus with state income taxes, car registration, etc all deductible, charitable giving starts to make a difference in your taxes.

Naruki, you can buy TurboTax now and use it to estimate if itemizing would be advantageous, and sell or donate the items accordingly. And if you paid more than $4,850 in state income tax, itemizing might actually be worth considering ($4750 was last year, sorry!)