Introduction

When you give a lot to charity, it’s nice to be able to deduct those contributions on your federal income taxes. What’s even nicer is that if you top out the amount you’re allowed to deduct within a given year, you can potentially claim those deductions in the future.

Some states, like Minnesota, are similarly generous about charitable giving. And in Minnesota, you didn’t have to have itemized at the federal level to be able to itemize at the state level.

In this case, how much is a lot? Federally, various limits to contribution deductibility kick in starting at 20% of your AGI. All of the gory details are in IRS publication 526. For your state, look at the instructions for the form on which the donations are documented.

Where

For your federal return, the carry-over information will appear on Schedule A, line 13 on the 2022 form. If you are in Minnesota, your tax preparer can fill in this charitable giving carry-over amount on form M1SA, line 17 on the 2022 form.

Note that there’s no easy way to document on the tax return itself that you have amounts to carry over to the future. Make sure you’re documenting this for yourself or your tax preparer, especially so if you change tax preparers.

And carry overs are limited to a 5 year look-back federally, and in Minnesota.

Conclusion

If you ever contribute 20% of your AGI or more to charity (and not by a QCD), but don’t itemize every year, or if your income fluctuates, or if your charitable contributions fluctuate, look into carrying over any excess charitable contributions to your future tax returns.

Remember – Every state is different, if you donate a lot look into the rules for your state.