This is something that I was never aware of, but now that I have been informed it just bewilders me.

Did you know that you can save money on taxes by donating to charities? It's quite simple. Just follow these easy instructions.



How to Save Money on Taxes by Donating to Charities
Fulfill your desire to help others by making tax-deductible donations. The good news about charitable donations is that you can deduct them from your income taxes, which in most cases will save you money. With such an outcome, how can you afford not to give?

Making Donations

Steps:
1. Select a tax-exempt organization qualified to receive tax-deductible donations. See the Related eHow "How to Determine if a Charity Is Qualified to Receive Tax-Deductible Donations" for guidelines.

2. Learn the Internal Revenue Service's definition of a charitable contribution: "a donation or gift to a qualified organization that is both voluntary and made without getting, or expecting to get, anything of equal value."

3. Make charitable donations to the organizations you select throughout the year.

4. Keep records of your donations. For donations of less than $250, a canceled check is sufficient for IRS purposes. For contributions larger than $250, you must get a written acknowledgment from the organization that includes the amount of cash contributed, a description of the property (for a non-cash contribution) and notice of whether you received any goods or services in exchange for the donation. See "How to Keep Proper Records for Donations" in the Related eHows for more details.


Filing Your Taxes

Steps:
1. Gather together your records, listing your individual donations.

2. Report your charitable contributions by itemizing your deductions on Schedule A of IRS Form 1040.

3. Deduct your contributions only in the year you actually made them.

4. Fill out the relevant parts of Form 8283 if you made non-cash contributions totaling over $500.


Overall Warnings:
The benefits of donating to charity will vary widely, depending on your personal financial situation. Consult your tax adviser.

Take care to follow all IRS guidelines for documenting and reporting donations. See "How to Keep Proper Records of Your Donations" for more information.

You didn't know that :-# Poor Krem.

Yup, it's how my parents save big bucks. Tax loops! weeee!

So what the hell do tax cuts mean to you rich folk? After all, you can just donate more to the charities...

if it helps charity, why should you or I care?

That's exactly the point - If Krem's right and zach's right, wouldn't you want to increase peoples' tax loads? After all, if they use their money to donate to several charities, they'll just get money back in return. And, the more money they donate to charities, the more money they earn. With tax cuts, this isn't possible, as you'd only gain a bit from donating to charities.

But, realistically, this isn't possible. The government would just lose money and eventually, they'd do away with all possible tax-exemptions. And, then, there'd be no motive for most to even consider buying an ugly Toyota Prius, unless you're Ralph Nader or one of his 5001 supporters.

them naderbater's piss me off. But in the end if it gets people to donate then give'r. I know my parents donated some money for tax deductible.

Unfortunately, it isn't really making money - it is just one of many tax write-offs. When you start paying taxes to the US government, you will learn how shitty paying taxes get. Not up on how other governments tax.

After you make enough money, you could be paying close to 40 - 50% of the money you make ( including the rip off double taxiation of sales tax - they tax you when you make the money and then they also tax you when you spend the money. )

Anyway, on the tax write-off basically you are paying a dollar out but you are only getting back anywhere up to about 33% on your tax return depending on your income bracket.

Finally, a sane response. Thanks goldie.

Of course, nobody can save money by donating to charity. It's a lie that people keep believing. A lot of people open up their pockets at the end of the year just to get into a lower bracket or save my on write-offs and other such baloney. It's just not true. When you donate money, you lose it. It is gone. You can then get some of it back on your tax return, but obviously if you didn't donate you'd save more money to begin with.

I just wanted to see how people would actually response 'yes' to this proposition, even though it obviously screams BULLSHIT.

Well, you can save money by donating to charities. You get some of the donation back. So if you intend to give 100 bucks and you get like 10 dollars back from the govt then you saved 10 dollars.

How many people in here would dontate just out of the kindness of their own heart?

I do Not too much money bc i hardly have any but i do at times.

That's nice of ya \:D/