taxgirl® - tax news, tax info and tax policy charitable-donations

July 14th, 2008

IRS Car Charity Rules Drives Donations Down

Image details: Junk car served by picapp.com
I’m sure that you’ve seen a number of signs and ads that encourage you to donate your vehicle to charity. In our area, they’re plastered all over the place… Do they actually work?
Not so much anymore. In 2004, Congress changed the rules regarding car donations for […]

By Kelly -- 5 comments

April 8th, 2008

Ask the taxgirl: Charity and deductions

Taxpayer asks:
Hi taxgirl,
There is a woman at our church who recently lost her home in a storm. A few of us put our heads together and decided to take up a collection for her. We collected money, housewares, bedding, you name it. She lost almost everything that she owned so we started […]

By Kelly -- 0 comments

February 28th, 2008

9 Child-Related Tax Breaks That You May Be Overlooking

In recent weeks, I’ve received a flurry of emails from parents asking about whether band uniforms, soccer cleats and other expenses related to children are deductible. I thought it might be useful to have a checklist of some child-related deductions that you may be overlooking.
1, Child tax credit. If your modified AGI (adjusted […]

By Kelly -- 0 comments

September 23rd, 2007

9 Ways to Get Your Tax Return Noticed by the IRS (and that’s not a good thing)

1. Don’t check your math. While most people use software these days, some taxpayers still do their forms 1040 (and 1040-EZ) by hand and math errors are the top mistake that taxpayers make. What you might not know is that the IRS has a staff of “checkers” who basically doublecheck your math. If your […]

By Kelly -- 7 comments