What is the $250 rule for charitable donations?
A single gift of $250 or more needs a written acknowledgment from the charity, in hand by the day you file. It must say what you gave and whether you got anything back; a bank record alone isn’t enough.
The rule
For any one gift of $250 or more, of money or anything else, you need a written acknowledgment from the charity. It must give the amount of cash, or describe what else you gave, and say whether the charity gave you anything in return. If it did, the acknowledgment describes it and estimates its value.
It has to be contemporaneous: in your hands by the day you file, or the due date with extensions if that is earlier. Charities usually send them by January 31.
Gifts aren’t added together. Weekly offerings of $25 never make a $250 gift. Several gifts of $250 or more can be covered by separate letters or one annual statement listing each.
A letter, a postcard, a form or an email all work. If it doesn’t show the date, keep a bank record that does.
A gift of $250 or more with no paper from the charity says so in Reimburse, while there is time to ask for it.
- What to keep
- The acknowledgment itself, kept with the year’s records, not sent with the return.
- Watch for
- Without the acknowledgment, the gift can’t be deducted at all, not even the first $250.
- Payroll gifts of $250 or more from a single paycheck need the pay stub or W-2 and the charity’s pledge card instead.
Checked on October 2, 2026 against Publication 526, Charitable Contributions, Publication 1771, Charitable Contributions: Substantiation and Disclosure and Topic 506, 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.