Why We Built ItsDeducted: From ItsDeductible to AI-Powered Donation Tracking
ItsDeducted began with a practical problem: TurboTax had shut down ItsDeductible, and the obvious fallback was more manual work. We built a capture-first donation tracker around photos, lists, AI-assisted item identification, and review.
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We were ItsDeductible users before we were product builders
When TurboTax ItsDeductible shut down, our first reaction was not “let’s start a company.” It was “what are we supposed to use now?”
We had used ItsDeductible for years to keep track of regular household donations. The obvious alternatives meant going back to spreadsheets or rebuilding donations one item at a time: search for an item, find the closest database match, enter it, and repeat.
What changed the direction: “I originally went looking for a replacement, but after looking around at some options, thought there was a chance to make donation tracking a lot faster.” Read the original TurboTax Community post.
That distinction still matters. ItsDeducted did not start as a generic “AI for taxes” idea. It started with a workflow we knew firsthand, then asked a more useful question: could modern AI remove the repetitive setup work instead of merely recreating the old lookup experience?
The problem was not valuation alone. It was all the work around valuation.
A real donation rarely looks like a tidy database. It looks like bags of clothing, a box of kitchenware, toys, books, electronics, furniture, or a list someone already typed into Notes or Excel.
- 1
Reconstruct what left the house
Remember the items, quantities, condition, donation date, organization, and supporting records.
- 2
Translate real items into database labels
Search for the closest match, create custom items when needed, and repeat the process for every donated good.
- 3
Estimate fair market value
Review condition and comparable-market context rather than treating a lookup result as an automatic tax answer.
- 4
Keep the record together
Connect item details with receipts, photos, charity information, and donation-level documentation for later review.
None of those steps is especially difficult by itself. The friction comes from repetition. A few bags of clothing can become dozens of small searches and decisions, especially when a rigid catalog does not recognize the item description you naturally use.
We wanted to move donation tracking from database-first to capture-first
The core product idea became simple: let the donor start with the donation they already have, then let the software do more of the setup work.
Older workflow
Search → match → enter → repeat
The donor adapts the donation to a catalog and repeats a one-item-at-a-time process.
ItsDeducted workflow
Capture → identify → review → save
Start with a photo or existing list, use AI to build the record, then review item names, condition, quantity, and estimated fair market value before saving.
That is why ItsDeducted supports photo-based item capture, list import, and broader natural-language matching. The deeper product mechanics belong in How It Works; this article’s job is to explain why that workflow exists.
The first real test was our own tax prep
donated items documented in 22 minutes of total time spent
A personal workflow test, not a speed guarantee
ItsDeducted launched in time to use it for our own 2025 tax preparation. That firsthand test answered the practical question that started the project: could a capture-first workflow be materially faster than rebuilding a long donation item by item?
For our use, the answer was yes. The 273-item result is not a benchmark every donor will reproduce; donation size, photo quality, item complexity, and review time all vary. We keep the caveat because the useful claim is not “everyone will finish in 22 minutes.” It is that the workflow can remove a large amount of repetitive manual entry.
The product started with one household. The data quickly became bigger than our own experience.
By August 2026, ItsDeducted had enough anonymized, aggregated platform activity to publish its first Donation Value Report. The inaugural research snapshot covered 25,879 physical donated goods, 439 completed donation events, and approximately $196,000 in estimated fair market value.
That research serves a different purpose from the product story. It provides a transparent first-party view of what users documented: common categories, the size of completed donations, condition patterns, and how estimated values varied across the snapshot.
Research, not a universal price list: The report describes anonymized ItsDeducted platform activity. It is not a probability sample of U.S. donors, and the recorded estimates are not IRS-set values. Read the full methodology and findings.
AI helps build the record. The donor still owns the decision.
Fair market value · IRS Publication 561
The IRS describes fair market value as the price property would change hands for between a willing buyer and a willing seller, with neither under compulsion and both having reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts.
ItsDeducted helps identify donated items, organize records, and suggest estimated fair market values. Users review the details before saving. The product is designed to support donation recordkeeping, not to replace professional judgment or determine the exact deduction a taxpayer should claim.
For more on the valuation principles behind the estimates, see IRS Publication 561 and our fair market value guide. ItsDeducted is independent and is not affiliated with Intuit, TurboTax, or ItsDeductible.
What our customers think
We’re on a mission to make donation tracking fast and easy enough to happen in the moment—not weeks or months later when the details are fuzzy. That means listening closely to our users, improving the workflow as we learn, and removing every unnecessary step we can.
Some of the feedback we’re most excited to hear is that former ItsDeductible users are making the transition smoothly, people are saving meaningful time, and donors are more likely to capture a donation while it is happening because a photo can turn it into an organized record in seconds.
“I used to forget to enter my donations after dropping off. Now I just snap a few photos and ItsDeducted does the rest. Much easier.”
Doug T.
“I used TurboTax ItsDeductible for years. When it shut down I needed another option because I donate all the time. ItsDeducted took me maybe 30 seconds to get set up, and the photo upload is impressive. I uploaded a picture of a pile of items I was dropping off and it just knew what was in it from the photo I took.”
ItsDeducted Pro user
“I used to spend a lot of time searching for items one by one in the old ItsDeductible. This tool is so much faster. It saved me a huge amount of time.”
Geoff M.
Common questions about why ItsDeducted was built
Start with the donation you already have.
Take a photo, import a list, or add items manually. Review the estimated values and keep the record organized while the details are still fresh.