Cash Contributions: Charitable Deductions (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Cash Contributions” 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

You must keep records to prove the amount of the contributions you make during the year. The kind of records you must keep depends on the amount of your contributions and whether they are:

• Cash contributions,

• Noncash contributions, or

• Out-of-pocket expenses when donating your services.

Cash Contributions

Cash contributions include payments made by cash, check, electronic funds transfer, online payment service, debit card, credit card, payroll deduction, or a transfer of a gift card redeemable for cash.

You can’t deduct a cash contribution, regardless of the amount, unless you keep one of the following.

1. A bank record that shows the name of the qualified organization, the date of the contribution, and the amount of the contribution. Bank records may include the following.

   1. A canceled check.

   2. A bank or credit union statement.

   3. A credit card statement.

   4. An electronic fund transfer receipt.

   5. A scanned image of both sides of a canceled check obtained from a bank or credit union website.

2. A receipt (or a letter or other written communication such as an email) from the qualified organization showing the name of the organization, the date of the contribution, and the amount of the contribution.

3. The payroll deduction records described next.

Payroll deductions.

If you make a contribution by payroll deduction, you must keep:

1. A paystub, a Form W-2, or another document furnished by your employer that shows the date and amount of the contribution; and

2. A pledge card or other document prepared by or for the qualified organization that shows the name of the organization and states the organization doesn’t provide goods or services in return for any contribution made to it by payroll deduction.

If your employer withheld $250 or more from a single paycheck, see Contributions of $250 or More next.

Contributions of $250 or More

You can claim a deduction for a contribution of $250 or more only if you have a contemporaneous written acknowledgment of your contribution from the qualified organization, or certain payroll deduction records. See Contemporaneous written acknowledgment (CWA) later, for a description of when a written acknowledgement is considered “contemporaneous” with your contribution.

If you made more than one contribution of $250 or more, you must have either a separate acknowledgment for each or one acknowledgment that lists each contribution and the date of each contribution and shows your total contributions.

Amount of contribution.

In figuring whether your contribution is $250 or more, don’t combine separate contributions. For example, if you gave your church $25 each week, your weekly payments don’t have to be combined. Each payment is a separate contribution.

If contributions are made by payroll deduction, the deduction from each paycheck is treated as a separate contribution.

If you made a payment that is partly for goods and services, as described earlier under Contributions From Which You Benefit, your contribution is the amount of the payment that is more than the value of the goods and services.

Acknowledgment.

The acknowledgment must meet these tests.

1. It must be written.

2. It must include:

   1. The amount of cash you contributed,

   2. Whether the qualified organization gave you any goods or services as a result of your contribution (other than certain token items and membership benefits),

   3. A description and good faith estimate of the value of any goods or services described in (b). If the only benefit you received was an intangible religious benefit (such as admission to a religious ceremony) that generally isn’t sold in a commercial transaction outside the donative context, the acknowledgement must say so and doesn’t need to describe or estimate the value of the benefit.

If the acknowledgment doesn’t show the date of the contribution, you must also have a bank record or receipt, as described earlier, that does show the date of the contribution. If the acknowledgment shows the date of the contribution and meets the other tests just described, you don’t need any other records.

Contemporaneous written acknowledgment (CWA).

Organizations typically send written acknowledgements to donors no later than January 31 of the year following the donation. For the written acknowledgement to be considered contemporaneous with the contribution, it must meet both of the following requirements.

1. Meet all the tests described under Acknowledgment, earlier.

2. You must get it on or before the earlier of:

   1. The date you file your return for the year you make the contribution; or

   2. The due date, including extensions, for filing the return.

Payroll deductions.

If you make a contribution by payroll deduction and your employer withholds $250 or more from a single paycheck, you must keep:

1. A paystub, a Form W-2, or another document furnished by your employer that shows the amount withheld as a contribution; and

2. A pledge card or other document prepared by or for the qualified organization that shows the name of the organization and states the organization doesn’t provide goods or services in return for any contribution made to it by payroll deduction.

A single pledge card may be kept for all contributions made by payroll deduction regardless of amount as long as it contains all the required information.

If the paystub, Form W-2, pledge card, or other document doesn’t show the date of the contribution, you must have another document that does show the date of the contribution. If the paystub, Form W-2, pledge card, or other document shows the date of the contribution, you don’t need any other records except those just described in (1) and (2).

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

• Publication 526 (2025), Charitable Contributions: Substantiation Requirements — Cash Contributions — Internal Revenue Service; 2025 edition.

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.