September 17, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Americans reported making donations of $46.8-billion in noncash gifts in 2006, a 14-percent increase over the previous year, according to a new report from the Internal Revenue Service.
The figure covers gifts from taxpayers who said they made more than $500 worth of noncash gifts in the year.
The increase occurred even though the number of tax returns indicating noncash donations declined by 6 percent, from 6.6 million in 2005 to 6.2 million in 2006.
The biggest share of noncash contributions, said the report, consisted of corporate stock, clothing, and household items.
The IRS noted that in August 2006 a change in federal law took effect that was intended to prevent people from taking charitable deductions for used clothing and household items that were not in good condition. (In previous years, donors could deduct the fair market value of such items regardless of condition.)
“While it is not known what effect this had on donations of these items, the amount deducted for clothing and household items declined 10.8 percent and 1 percent, respectively, between tax years 2005 and 2006,” the IRS said. “In previous years, from tax years 2003 to 2005, there was a steady increase in both clothing and household deductions.”
The IRS said the amount of donations of corporate stock — the largest share of total noncash donations — increased by $6.7-billion, or 40.7 percent, from 2005 to 2006, rising from $16.3-billion to $23-billion.
The tax agency published the data in its Statistics of Income Bulletin for summer 2009.
