Charitable donations are deductible if the amount of the donation is within a certain threshold, based off your adjusted gross income (AGI). In most cases, the upper limit is 50% of your AGI for donations, meaning a taxpayer with a $50,000 AGI can deduct up to $25,000 of charitable contributions.

In order to deduct items you’ve given to charity, you have to itemize. So if your charitable contributions are less than the standard deduction you qualify for, you’d be better off taking the standard deduction. In 2015, the standard deduction for single status is $6,300, so you’d have to donate more than that amount, unless you have additional itemized deductions listed on a Schedule A that exceed that amount. If not, tracking your charitable deductions really isn’t worth the effort or time.