Charitable contribution carryover.

The core rule

Publication 526 says 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 qualified conservation contribution can be carried forward for 15 years.

How the limits follow the carryover

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. Contributions subject to the 20% limit when made are 20% limit contributions in the carryover year.

Order of use

• For each category of contributions, you deduct carryover contributions only after deducting all allowable current-year contributions in that category.
• If you have carryovers from two or more prior years, use the earlier year first.
• A carryover of a contribution to a 50% limit organization must be used before current-year contributions to organizations other than 50% limit organizations.

The publication’s first example

Last year you gave $11,000 in cash to 50% limit organizations. The 60% limit allowed only $10,000, so you carried $1,000 over. This year your AGI is $20,000 and you gave $9,500 in cash to 50% limit organizations. The 60% limit applies to the $9,500 and the $1,000 together: $10,500 is less than $12,000 (60% of $20,000), so both are deductible in full.

The mixed example

With AGI of $24,000, $6,000 of cash subject to the 60% limit, $3,000 subject to the 30% limit and a $5,000 carryover of capital gain property under the special 30% limit, the publication allows the $6,000 in full ($14,400 is the cap), $1,000 of the 30%-limit gifts (the lesser of $7,200 and $12,000 − $11,000), and the $5,000 carryover in full. The total is $12,000, and $2,000 of this year’s 30%-limit gifts carries to next year.

Capital gain property carryovers

If you carry over capital gain property under the special 30% limit and then choose the 50% limit in a later year, you must refigure the carryover by reducing the property’s FMV by the appreciation and then by the amount actually deducted in the earlier year. In the publication’s example, $27,000 of property with a $20,000 basis and AGI of $50,000 gave a $15,000 deduction and a $12,000 carryover; refigured, the carryover is $5,000 ($20,000 − $15,000).

When the rules get harder

The publication does not work through carryovers where you are married in some years but not others, have different spouses in different years, switch between joint and separate returns, have a net operating loss, claim the standard deduction in a carryover year, or become a surviving spouse. It suggests consulting a tax practitioner. Noncash substantiation rules for gifts over $500 also apply to any return filed for a carryover year.

What the calculator covers

It models only the simple case in Example 1: cash to 50% limit organizations under the 60% limit, with a carryover of the same type. The 60% limit applies to this year’s gifts and the carryover together, and the carryover is used first. It does not model other categories. For those, use Worksheet 2 in Publication 526.

Worked example

AGI $50,000 gives a 60% cap of $30,000. You give $28,000 in cash this year and have a $6,000 carryover. Total $34,000 less the cap leaves $4,000 over. The $6,000 carryover is used first, then $24,000 of this year’s gift, and $4,000 carries to next year, within the 5-year window.

Which year a gift belongs to

Carryovers only arise from gifts that were deductible in the first place, and a gift belongs to the year it is actually made. A mailed check is delivered on the mailing date, a credit card gift in the year of the charge, a text message gift in the year you send it, and a pay-by-phone gift on the date the institution pays. A promissory note is not a contribution until the note payments are made, and a conditional gift is not deductible unless the chance that the condition fails is negligible. Contributing borrowed funds counts in the year you deliver the funds, regardless of when you repay the loan.

Related

See the AGI limits, qualified conservation contributions and the charitable bunching calculator.

Sources

• IRS Publication 526 (2025), Charitable Contributions: the sections cited on this page. Read November 2, 2026.
• IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search: the tool Pub 526 names (IRS.gov/TEOS) for checking whether an organization can receive deductible gifts. Pointed to, not queried.

Edition read: Publication 526 (2025), for use in preparing 2025 returns. Its “How To Get Tax Help” section notes that P.L. 119-21 (July 4, 2025) enacted tax reform, with updates at IRS.gov/OBBB; this page states no 2026 changes that the publication text does not spell out, so check the 2026 edition when it is released. Where the publication refers to Pub 544, Pub 561 or the Instructions for Form 8283 for more detail, this page does not restate those documents. This page summarizes the publication and does not replace it.