I have a wealthy client who provided receipts for non-cash donations of approx $42,000 in total I want to make sure I understand the "more than $5,000" appraisal required rule for noncash donations. As I understand it, I need to see how much was donated for each category (e.g., furniture, collectibles, etc.) and determine if the category in total exceeds $5,000. And if the donations in a particular category exceed $5,000 in total (regardless of whether the taxpayers made those donations to 10 different charitable organizations), then they need an appraisal letter  - which, of course, almost all taxpayers never have when tax time rolls around.

My client donated the following items - totals by category are shown below (their estimate):

Furniture $32,000 (A lot of this was old colonial-style antique furniture)

Collectibles $8,000 

Jewelry - $2,800

Toys - $600

I guess the first place I would start is to ask them how they arrived at their FMV. But assuming they did their due diligence and their estimates of  FMV are reasonable, if I understand the $5,000 "appraisal required" limit correctly, I think that their deduction for the furniture and collectibles categories are limited to $5,000 each.

Do I have that right?