<prompt> Human: A few years ago, I donated a bunch of stuff to the Salvation Army. The rep ended up giving me a donation slip for tax write-off purposes to my surprise. When I asked my tax person if it would help lower my taxes, he said that it wouldnt because some sort of inherent deductions would probably override whatever value I donated. Its been several years since that happened, and now I have a bunch of stuff that I want to donate, I wanted to ask rpersonalfinances advice on when the donation slip would be useful.Thanks!  <response>: The donations only help if you itemize when you file your taxes for the year that you donated. If the standard deduction is a larger amount than what your itemized deductions total, then you would receive no tax benefit from the donations. 