Can I Deduct Donations Made to Any Organization? | IRS Qualified Charities

Contributions to Tax-Exempt Organizations aka “IRS Qualified Charities” are Tax Deductible

If you itemize your deductions (rather than taking the standard deduction), your donations are tax deductible. Don’t get too excited though, you’ll only be able to deduct contributions made to qualified charities and organizations.

Not sure what organization to donate to this year? We’re here to help clarify what types of charities are IRS qualified to lower your taxable income.

Then, once you’re ready to prepare your tax return, we’ll guide you through filing your taxes!

How Do I Know if a Organization is Qualified Tax-Exempt?

If you donated (or plan on donating) to a specific organization, you may be unsure if you’ll be able to include the generosity on your tax return.

Luckily, the IRS has a search tool on their website, allowing you to enter the organization’s name and location to find out whether their considered an “exempt organization” and tax deductible.

In order to deduct a contribution, the organization will either need to;

• have a  501(c)(3) tax-exempt status (obtained from the IRS)

• be a church or religious organization

Your donations to organizations that are not considered “IRS Qualified” won’t help lower your tax liability. In other words, if you donated to your sister’s knitting club, you won’t be able to include it on your taxes.

What Types of Organizations are considered IRS Qualified?

When filing your taxes, you’ll be able to deduct donations to the following types of charities;

• Religious Organizations: churches, synagogues, temples, mosques
• Public Charities: Goodwill, Salvation Army, Red Cross, Girls/Boy Club of America, United Way, etc.
• Nonprofits: Hospitals, schools, fire departments
• War Veterans Groups: DAV, VFW, etc
• Public Parks & Recreation Facilities
• Federal, State & Local Governments (if the contribution is for public purposes)

There’s multiple lists of organizations that are also considered IRS Qualified Charitable Organizations. Visit the Charities & Nonprofits section of the IRS website to see the complete lists.

Report Your Donations & File Today!

To learn more on how to deduct your contributions, visit the PriorTax article titled How to Deduct Donations: Charitable Contribution Tax Tips 

If you still need to report donations and file a late tax return, you’ll be able to on PriorTax! In fact, you should sooner rather than later- think of your refund money waiting to be claimed!

You can also file a 2014 return with PriorTax. To get started, create an account. 

Luckily, reporting donations is hassle-free on PriorTax! We’ll do the hard work for you.

Photo via Sherri on Flickr

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2014 at 5:53 pm and is filed under Tax Deductions and Credits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.