Home Page link  

Volunteer work--deductions?

  
Groups | Search | About
User Password
Register Now! Lost Password?

Taxes General Forum - Tax professionals meeting place and answers to queries. (Moderated)

 Post an article  get this group's latest topics as an RSS feed add this group's latest topics to your My MSN content add this group's latest topics to your My Yahoo content  add this group's latest topics to your Google content  YahooMyWeb Yahoo!  Google Google  Windows Live Favorites Windows Live  del.icio.us del.icio.us  digg digg  Add to Netscape Netscape
Subject Author Date
Volunteer work--deductions? sandybeth 03-16-2008
Posted by joetaxpayer on March 17, 2008, 9:53 am
Please log in for more thread options

Phil Marti wrote:
> "joetaxpayer" wrote:
>
>
>>See http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/taxes/deductions.shtml
>>It says to me that there's little you can deduct except for out of pocket
>>expenses which the museum would have had anyway (e.g. you pick up some
>>office supplies on the way there, it's a deduction.)
>>It also implies the commute to the museum isn't even a deduction, but your
>>own personal expense. Although milage while you are running an errand for
>>the museum would be, of course.
>
>
> Gee, I wonder if the IRS knows about this Q&A, which is incontradiction to
> Table 2 on page 6 of Pub 526, which clearly states this commute is a
> deductible charitable contribution.

Phil, I suspect they are confusing it with the miles deduction a
salesman is allowed. The rules suggest that a salesman cannot take the
miles from his home to the first account call, but only between that
first call and the rest of the day, the first being considered as a
commute. I haven't paid much attention to that law, maybe it's changed
as well.
Note: Pub 526 does allow the cost of oil changes to be prorated to
calculate actual costs. (But no repairs, tires, maintenance.)

Joe

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>
<< The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, >>
<< nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties >>
<< that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. >>
<< >>
<< The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts >>
<< to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy >>
<< are at www.asktax.org. >>
<< Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. >>
<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>

Posted by Tom Russ on March 19, 2008, 3:10 pm
Please log in for more thread options
 Well, I'll piggy-back some questions on this thread since they are
related.

Consider a situation where one is doing volunteer work to support, say
an academic club at a local public school.

Presumably this has the potential for being a valid charitable
deduction since it goes to a local government or a non-profit school.
Correct?

OK. Now suppose you are the leader of this group and accompany the
group to a competition. Based on reading the information in p526
about troop leaders on camping trips (p.5, Example 1), this would seem
to make the mileage and other necessary expenses deductible. Right?

Now, suppose that a parent drives their child to such an event. I
would guess this falls in the category of personal expense, since it
is to allow their child to participate, rather than facilitating the
group activity. Non-deductible, correct?

Other facts. Suppose a person provides transportation for several
children, none of them related to the driver. Deductible? Right?

And now the $64,000 (or at least $0.14) question: What is the
treatment if a parent drives a group of children to such an event,
including one of their own offspring. Is this deductible or not?

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>
<< The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, >>
<< nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties >>
<< that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. >>
<< >>
<< The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts >>
<< to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy >>
<< are at www.asktax.org. >>
<< Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. >>
<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>

Posted by removeps-groups@yahoo.com on March 20, 2008, 2:37 am
Please log in for more thread options

> Consider a situation where one is doingvolunteerwork to support, say
> an academic club at a local public school.
>
> Presumably this has the potential for being a valid charitable
> deduction since it goes to a local government or a non-profit school.
> Correct?

It has to be a 501(c)(3). I'm not sure if donations to schools are
501(c)(3) deductible. Certainly government organizations are not
501(c)(3).

> OK. Now suppose you are the leader of this group and accompany the
> group to a competition. Based on reading the information in p526
> about troop leaders on camping trips (p.5, Example 1), this would seem
> to make the mileage and other necessary expenses deductible. Right?
>
> Now, suppose that a parent drives their child to such an event. I
> would guess this falls in the category of personal expense, since it
> is to allow their child to participate, rather than facilitating the
> group activity. Non-deductible, correct?

If the child is volunteering at the 501(c)(3), then I'd imagine the
miles are deductible -- like if you drive them to the soup kitchen. I
was thinking just now that it might be deductible on the child's
return only (in which case it would probably be meaningless as the
standard deduction of $850 might be more than the itemized deduction),
but then again, I'm not sure.

> Other facts. Suppose a person provides transportation for several
> children, none of them related to the driver. Deductible? Right?

Same, they all have to volunteer at the 501(c)(3).

> And now the $64,000 (or at least $0.14) question: What is the
> treatment if a parent drives a group of children to such an event,
> including one of their own offspring. Is this deductible or not?

If they all volunteer at the 501(c)(3), I don't see why not.

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>
<< The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, >>
<< nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties >>
<< that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. >>
<< >>
<< The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts >>
<< to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy >>
<< are at www.asktax.org. >>
<< Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. >>
<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>

Posted by Bill Brown on March 20, 2008, 9:57 am
Please log in for more thread options
On Mar 20, 2:37 am, "removeps-gro...@yahoo.com" <removeps-
gro...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > Consider a situation where one is doingvolunteerwork to support, say
> > an academic club at a local public school.
>
> > Presumably this has the potential for being a valid charitable
> > deduction since it goes to a local government or a non-profit school.
> > Correct?
>
> It has to be a 501(c)(3).  I'm not sure if donations to schools are
> 501(c)(3) deductible.  Certainly government organizations are not
> 501(c)(3).
>

Out of pocket expenses incurred doing volunteer work for a government
organization or a qualified education institution are deductible as
charitable contributions.
By the way, many privately operated education institutions (Duke
University comes to mind) are 501(c)(3) organizations.

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>
<< The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, >>
<< nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties >>
<< that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. >>
<< >>
<< The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts >>
<< to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy >>
<< are at www.asktax.org. >>
<< Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. >>
<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>

Posted by removeps-groups@yahoo.com on March 21, 2008, 9:23 pm
Please log in for more thread options

> Out of pocket expenses incurred doing volunteer work for a government
> organization or a qualified education institution are deductible as
> charitable contributions.

Thanks for pointing out. I read up on it at
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p526/ar02.html.
But I also read that money spent to lobby government is not
deductible. So if I donate a traffic light to my city, it would be
deductible, right?

> By the way, many privately operated education institutions (Duke
> University comes to mind) are 501(c)(3) organizations.

What about public schools?

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>
<< The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, >>
<< nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties >>
<< that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. >>
<< >>
<< The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts >>
<< to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy >>
<< are at www.asktax.org. >>
<< Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. >>
<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>

Similar ThreadsPosted
VITA/TCE Volunteer training December 17, 2006, 6:40 pm
Volunteer Charitable Expenses February 23, 2007, 7:09 am
Volunteer expenses clarification needed December 25, 2007, 8:07 pm
Volunteer expenses for building a tennis tournament website September 15, 2008, 3:29 pm
Nonprofit Unincorporated Association Volunteer Fire Department October 9, 2008, 3:22 pm
Deductible miles as registered volunteer/coach for registered on-profit youth hockey club? March 13, 2008, 10:30 am

Contact Us | Privacy Policy
This site is not affiliated with Intuit - makers of Quickbooks and Quicken software
This site is not affiliated with Sage Software - makers of Peachtree accounting software
XML SitemapXML Sitemap