It’s getting close to that time of the year when individuals and businesses both are thinking about giving back to their communities. Giving back to your community and to those less fortunate is a great thing and can be very rewarding. Below are some helpful charity tips/ideas if you’re looking to get that “extra bang” for your contribution buck. We saved the best tip for GA residents last.
Where’s Your Money Going?
Before one gives to charity they should first be passionate about what and who they are giving to. In order to do this it requires a little research. We advise going to a couple different places.
- GuideStar – This is a great place to research whether or not a charitable organization is a legitimate organization and whether or not your donation will be tax deductible. Also, if you are really bored you can look at any exempt organizations tax return here as it is public record.
- Charity Navigator – Of the two this is my favorite one. Charity Navigator is America’s largest charity evaluator. On this site you can find out how the charity spends your donation money. It doesn’t actually have the tax return filed, but it does give a percentage of how much goes to advertising, management, and how much is actually going into the program in percentage form. The site ranks each organization based on a scoring system of several factors of which one is how much of the donation dollars are being used for the exempt purpose.
What If You Are Giving Non-Cash Donations?
Let’s be honest, in this economy not everyone can give monetary donations to charity. Giving of your time and no longer needed physical items can still be a rewarding feeling and still benefit you tax wise.
1) Salvation Army Guide – Here you will find a spreadsheet that gives you values of various household items and gives an IRS acceptable range of high to low costs per item. Many people short themselves when it comes to the values they can deduct of non-cash items. For some reason everyone is scared of that “all dreaded” $500 mark that is on Schedule A. The guide will help you max out your non-cash contributions deduction. (for items over $5,000 other steps are needed, please call us to go over)
2) Giving Your Time – Keep up with your mileage you are driving for that charitable organization. The IRS allows 14 cents per mile and this can add up if you itemize.
Georgia Education Expense Credit
Each year the state of Georgia sets aside 50 million dollars to be “Redirected” to SSO’s for students to attend private schools grades K-12. Not only is it great because the money is being used to go to students who can’t afford the private school education, but it also benefits the donor because the state of GA gives the individual or corporation a dollar for dollar tax credit. It is called “Redirect” money because when the money is given the donor takes a Federal deduction and on their GA return they take a credit for the exact amount they gave (after adding back the Federal Charitable donation). That credit is as if that taxpayer redirected that amount in taxes from going to GA to the organization, basically making money. Talk about big bang for your buck if you are a taxpayer that normally gives to charity. As of 9-28-11 there is 19.5 million of the 50 million allotted for 2011. The two most well-known of the organizations that participate in the program are Apogee Scholarship Fund and GOAL Scholarship Fund. Each fund has a list of participating schools. We told you we saved the best charitable tax planning tip for last.