I just gave some money to a fund set up for a sick friend. And I wondered if such a gift is tax deductible.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’d help someone I care about whether I get a tax break or not. But I’m trying to be more organized this year and if it were deductible, I’d want to put it in my 2008 taxes folder.

So I went over to IRS.gov and checked out its Charitable Contributions Publication 526. They have publications galore for your reading and searching pleasure there.And I found a handy list of donations that aren’t tax deductible:

• Money or property given to civic leagues, social and sports clubs, labor unions and chambers of commerce
• Most foreign organizations (except certain Canadian, Israeli and Mexican charities–hey I don’t make this stuff up)
• Groups that are run for personal property (you’d think that’s obvious, but we know someone out there’s gaming the system)
• Groups whose purpose is to lobby for law changes (I’d love clarification on what charity the IRS thinks doesn’t do this these days)
• Homeowners’ associations
• Individuals (like my friend)
• Political groups or candidates
• Cost of raffle, bingo, lotto tickets
• Country club dues, fees to lodges or fraternal orders or other orgs of that nature
• Tuition
• Value of your time or service
• Value of blood given to the blood bank (how much is blood even worth)

Whew!

Last year, we only donated a pathetic 1.5 percent of our income to charity. Part of the issue is without a giving plan in place, the giving was pushed towards the end of the year. Then I wanted to research new organizations and ran out of time. On the day after Christmas, I spent a hurried half an hour writing out checks and filling out online donation forms. This year, I hope to be more proactive.

How much do you give to charity?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 7:06 pm and is filed under deal of the week, giving, taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.