Donations

While donations should not be made simply for tax purposes but for philanthropic reasons, you can always make a couple more at the end of the year to lower your tax bite. Remember to get receipts. When making charitable contributions to qualified organizations, a tax deduction is usually available for those charitable contributions for taxpayers who itemize tax deductions on their tax return, provided, in most cases, the total tax deduction on the taxpayer's tax return does not exceed ½ of the taxpayer's Adjusted Gross Income. Excess tax deductions for charitable contributions may be carried forward to future tax returns for five tax years.

You can deduct your charitable contributions on your tax return only if you make the charitable contributions to a qualified organization. To become a qualified organization and accept tax deductible charitable contributions, most organizations other than churches and governments, as described below, must apply to the IRS. You can ask any organization you intend to make charitable contributions to whether it is a qualified organization, and most will be able to tell you. Or you can always check Publication 78 prior to making a charitable contribution, which lists most qualified charitable organizations. You may find Publication 78 in your local library's reference section. If it’s not available in libraries, you can call the IRS tax help telephone number shown for your area in your tax package to find out if a charitable organization is qualified to accept tax deductible charitable contributions.