Charitable Donations To Haiti Relief Effort Tax Deductible for 2009 Taxes

Charitable donations made to Haiti Earthquake relief efforts are tax deductible immediately, according to the IRS, which means they can be deducted on your 2009 tax return if you itemize.

Taxpayers can choose to deduct the donations made to Haitian relief efforts on either their 2009 returns which they will be filing shortly, or on their 2010 tax returns to be filed in 2011, but obviously not both.

Only cash contributions ( as opposed to property or goods donations) made to these charities after Jan. 11, 2010, and before March 1, 2010, are eligible. This includes contributions made by text message, check, credit card or debit card.

Filing Status requirements

The tax deduction is available only to those who itemize using schedule A, those who take the standard deduction are not eligible.

Charity eligibility

Taxpayers should be sure their contributions go to qualified charities. Most organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible donations are listed in a searchable online database available on IRS.gov under Search for Charities. Some organizations, such as churches or governments, may be qualified even though they are not listed on IRS.gov

Records /Receipt required as proof of donation

Federal law requires that taxpayers keep a record of any deductible donations they make. For donations by text message, a telephone bill will meet the record keeping requirement if it shows the name of the donee organization, the date of the contribution and the amount of the contribution. For cash contributions made by other means, be sure to keep a bank record, such as a canceled check, or a receipt from the charity showing the name of the charity and the date and amount of the contribution. Publication 526 has further details on the record keeping rules for cash contributions.

(Source info from irs press release IR-2010-012)