What is the 0.5% floor on charitable deductions?
From 2026, if you itemize, only the part of your gifts above 0.5% of your adjusted gross income is deductible. On $150,000 of income, the first $750 you give doesn’t count.
The rule
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act added a floor to the charitable deduction for people who itemize. Add up everything you gave in the year, then take off 0.5% of your adjusted gross income. Only what is left is deductible.
On $150,000 of income the floor is $750. Give $5,000 over the year and $4,250 of it is deductible. The amount under the floor can’t be deducted in 2026.
The floor applies only if you itemize. The new deduction for people who take the standard deduction, up to $1,000 of cash, counts from the first dollar.
- Without itemizing
- Doesn’t apply
- If you itemize
- The first 0.5% of your income doesn’t count
- What to keep
- Your records for every gift, and your adjusted gross income from the return, which sets the floor.
- Watch for
- The older limits still apply on top of the floor: cash gifts can’t come to more than 60% of your income in a year, and gifts of stock or goods have lower limits.
- Because the floor and the standard deduction both come off every year, some people give two years’ worth of gifts in one year, often through a donor-advised fund, and take the standard deduction in the other.
Checked on October 2, 2026 against Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax, 26 U.S.C. 170, charitable contributions and Publication 526, Charitable Contributions. An estimate for your records, not tax advice.
Federal tax only. States set their own rules for gifts.
Keep every gift with its receipt.
From 2026, up to $1,000 of cash gifts counts even without itemizing. Reimburse keeps each gift with the charity’s receipt, asks for the paper the IRS wants, and shows what it puts back.