Why your Charitable Contribution May Not be Showing Up on your Tax Return

Why is that charitable contribution you made last year not showing up as a deduction on your tax return?  The short answer is that recent tax lawss make it so that your itemized deductions are likely being overtaken by the standard deduction.

This time of year, many people have questions regarding their taxes.  One common question or concern I hear this time of year is about why certain deductions aren’t making an impact on tax returns.  Commonly this includes charitable contributions made throughout the previous year, but it can also include medical expenses over 7.5% of AGI, Primary home mortgage interest, and State and Local taxes.  

Let’s take a step back.  There are two main ways to take deductions on your tax return.  One is by itemizing your deductions.  This means adding up the deductions mentioned above, and deducting what is allowed from your AGI.  There is also the Standard Deduction, which is offered to every taxpayer.  The standard deduction for single people in 2026 is $16,100, and for Joint filers it is $32,200.  This means that single and joint filers can deduct these numbers from their AGI as an automatic deduction.

So why isn’t that charitable contribution, or home mortgage interest deductible?  Well, in order for it to make sense for you to itemize, those deductions would need to add up to more than the standard deduction offered.  

Let’s say you have $5,000 in charitable contributions, $5,000 of primary home mortgage interest, and $5,000 in state and local taxes in a current year, it would STILL make more sense to take the standard deduction, and you wouldn’t receive any taxable benefit from those payments.

As an aside, it’s worth mentioning that the SALT deduction was raised to $40,400 for Joint Filers under the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB), up from $10,000 under the TCJA.  If you live in a high tax state like New York, this could change your deduction math significantly, and make itemizing worth another look.

As of the signing of the Big Beautiful Bill last summer, these large standard deductions are here to stay.  It’s worth taking note of these deductions, and if charitably inclined, planning ahead for these contributions.  With the large Standard Deduction, Charitable bunching has become more popular in recent years. 

Charitable bunching involves making your charitable donations larger, but maybe only making one donation every few years.  This way you can use the donation as a deduction, but not reduce your giving.  Donor Advised Funds are a great way to do this.  A Donor Advised Fund lets you make a large contribution in one year, take the deduction, and then distribute the funds to charities over time.

These rules shouldn’t change how you give or inform whether or not to buy a house, but it’s important to understand.  Often these tax rules go overlooked and can be a drag come tax time.