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Carryovers: Charitable Deductions (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Carryovers” within charitable deductions. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 526 (2025), Charitable Contributions, published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

If your contributions are subject to more than one of the limits discussed earlier, use the following steps to figure the amount of your contributions that you can deduct.

These steps are incorporated into Worksheet 2.

Carryovers

You can carry over any contributions you can’t deduct in the current year because they exceed the limits based on your AGI. Except for qualified conservation contributions, you may be able to deduct the excess in each of the next 5 years until it is used up, but not beyond that time.

A carryover of a qualified conservation contribution can be carried forward for 15 years.

Generally, contributions you carry over are subject to the same percentage limits in the year to which they are carried as they were in the year of the contribution. For example, contributions subject to the 20% limit in the year in which they are made are 20% limit contributions in the year to which they are carried. But see Carryover of capital gain property, later.

For each category of contributions, you deduct carryover contributions only after deducting all allowable contributions in that category for the current year. If you have carryovers from 2 or more prior years, use the carryover from the earlier year first.

Note:

A carryover of a contribution to a 50% limit organization must be used before contributions in the current year to organizations other than 50% limit organizations. See Example 2.

Example 1.

Last year, you made cash contributions of $11,000 to 50% limit organizations. Because of the limit based on 60% of AGI, you deducted only $10,000 and carried over $1,000 to this year. This year, your AGI is $20,000 and you made cash contributions of $9,500 to 50% limit organizations. The limit based on 60% of AGI applies to your current-year cash contribution of $9,500 and carryover contribution of $1,000. You can deduct this year’s cash contribution and your carryover cash contribution in full because your total cash contributions of $10,500 ($9,500 + $1,000) is less than $12,000 (60% of $20,000).

Example 2.

This year, your AGI is $24,000. You make cash contributions of $6,000 to which the 60% limit applies and $3,000 to which the 30% limit applies. You have a contribution carryover from last year of $5,000 for capital gain property contributed to a 50%-limit organization and subject to the special 30% limit for contributions of capital gain property.

Your cash contribution of $6,000 is fully deductible because it is less than $14,400 (which is 60% of your AGI).

The deduction for your 30%-limit contributions of $3,000 is limited to $1,000. This is the lesser of:

  1. $7,200 (30% of $24,000), or

  2. $1,000 ($12,000 minus $11,000).

(The $12,000 amount is 50% of $24,000, your AGI. The $11,000 amount is the sum of your current and carryover contributions to 50% limit organizations, $6,000 + $5,000.)

The deduction for your $5,000 carryover is subject to the special 30% limit for contributions of capital gain property. This means it is limited to the smaller of:

  1. $7,200 (your 30% limit), or

  2. $5,000 ($12,000, your 50% limit, minus your allowable cash contributions to which the 60% limit applies ($6,000) and minus your allowable contribution to which the 30% limit applies ($1,000)).

Because your $5,000 carryover contribution does not exceed the smaller limit of $5,000, you can deduct it in full.

Your deduction is $12,000 ($6,000 + $1,000 + $5,000). You carry over the $2,000 balance of your 30% limit contributions for this year to next year.

Carryover of capital gain property.

If you carry over contributions of capital gain property subject to the special 30% limit and you choose in the next year to use the 50% limit and take appreciation into account, you must refigure the carryover. Reduce the FMV of the property by the appreciation and reduce that result by the amount actually deducted in the previous year.

Example.

Last year, your AGI was $50,000 and you contributed capital gain property valued at $27,000 to a 50% limit organization and didn’t choose to use the 50% limit. Your basis in the property was $20,000. Your deduction was limited to $15,000 (30% of $50,000), and you carried over $12,000. This year, your AGI is $60,000 and you contribute capital gain property valued at $25,000 to a 50% limit organization. Your basis in the property is $24,000 and you choose to use the 50% limit. You must refigure your carryover as if you had taken appreciation into account last year as well as this year. Because the amount of your contribution last year would have been $20,000 (the property’s basis) instead of the $15,000 you actually deducted, your refigured carryover is $5,000 ($20,000 − $15,000). Your total deduction this year is $29,000 (your $24,000 current contribution plus your $5,000 carryover).

Additional rules for carryovers.

Special rules exist for computing carryovers if you:

  • Are married in some years but not others,

  • Have different spouses in different years,

  • Change from a separate return to a joint return in a later year,

  • Change from a joint return to a separate return in a later year,

  • Have a net operating loss,

  • Claim the standard deduction in a carryover year, or

  • Become a surviving spouse.

Because of their complexity and the limited number of taxpayers to whom these additional rules apply, they aren’t discussed in this publication. If you need to figure a carryover and you are in one of these situations, you may want to consult with a tax practitioner.

Using the guidance

Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

Sources and further reading

The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.

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