do you think that it should be a tax write off?

I didnt want to thread Jack the other post, but I was curious.

We give to give. At church, to goodwill, etc etc, we never even think about it as a tax credit.

i don't think you'd get much out of it if you were donating more than the "standard" deduction, kwim?

All we ever want is a smile or a thank you.

I have never even bother to figure out how much we give a year. I know we did quite a bit with Danica's life insurance money, it never crossed my mind to to try and claim it. Oh well, that is not why we did it.

Bill & I honestly don't look at it as a tax cut at all. I didnt know why last week in the mail I had received a letter with all the amounts we had donated to the church through out the year. We donate to quite a few different causes throughout the year and don't once think of it in that sense either.

I think the only people who do deduct is are the rich people. LOL. I never write off my donations because they are mostly like $20-$50 at a time anyway.

It is a tax write off...not sure how much you get for it though.

I never thought about the tax deduction from giving to charity. I give because I want to give....the tax deduction is just bonus. We itemize because we own a home.

We donate all the time. I don't even bother to keep up with it. I give it and want nothing in return.

It depends. I donate a lot to SA most years. I donate a ton of stuff that I would consider "play clothes" (stuff that has no holes, no rips, no stains, but has been worn more than 10-15 times), used household goods that are still definitely useable but not stuff that is in immaculate, brand new condition and things of that nature. Most years, I think I donate probably $500-$1K worth of stuff.

However, last year, I donated around $3K worth of clothes that were in GREAT condition, lots of nearly new baby clothes, toddler clothes and a TON of maternity stuff, a lot of which had never been worn. Typically, I don't donate with the sole intention of it being a tax write off, but we aren't exactly in a position to just give away a ton of stuff like that for free, and with three kids and a full time business to run, I didn't have time to sell each individual piece even though we REALLY REALLY NEEDED that money. So, after seeing a commercial for the salvation army saying that every donation is tax deductible, I thought that would be such a better solution for us. I was very wrong b/c not a dime was deductible b/c it didn't put us over the "standard deduction".

If people can afford to donate a lot, good for them. We REALLY needed that money though and I really was not in a good enough financial position to just give that much stuff away. As much as I would have LIKED to do it for free, we just can't afford to.

do you think that it should be a tax write off?

I didnt want to thread Jack the other post, but I was curious.

We give to give. At church, to goodwill, etc etc, we never even think about it as a tax credit.

That is how we are too.

I never thought about the tax deduction from giving to charity. I give because I want to give....the tax deduction is just bonus. We itemize because we own a home.

Ditto.

Without the tax incentive, businesses in the position to donate millions of dollars wouldn't do so. Tons of charities depend on these donations. So yes, I'm all for it.

We itemize our taxes since we own a home. And we include our charitable deductions when we itemize. I can't say we donate during the year with taxes in mind, but I also don't mind using those donations to our financial advantage during tax time.

Without the tax incentive, businesses in the position to donate millions of dollars wouldn't do so. Tons of charities depend on these donations. So yes, I'm all for it.

We itemize our taxes since we own a home. And we include our charitable deductions when we itemize. I can't say we donate during the year with taxes in mind, but I also don't mind using those donations to our financial advantage during tax time.

Oh yeah, that's very true. I hadn't even thought about that really.

Without the tax incentive, businesses in the position to donate millions of dollars wouldn't do so. Tons of charities depend on these donations. So yes, I'm all for it.

We itemize our taxes since we own a home. And we include our charitable deductions when we itemize. I can't say we donate during the year with taxes in mind, but I also don't mind using those donations to our financial advantage during tax time.that is my thought too. When i am donating I am not thinking of the tax break i might be able to get, but when the time rolls around then yes those come back into mind.

i've never used any of my charity donations as tax deductions.
given, i've never donated more than $50 at a time (well, except to hurricane katrina, i think i donated like $200 to that)
either way, it wouldn't be worth claiming. and i don't think i should get rewarded for something that everyone should really be doing if they can afford it (okay, that's a lie- i do appreciate the free address labels, lol)