Is volunteering tax deductible?

Question

I have doing volunteer work for the past couple of years and recently a person I have met told me that I volunteering is tax deductible. I am 18 yrs old, When I was 17 yrs old and volunteering would my parents have gotten the tax deduction or what? Also, my main question is: Is volunteering tax deductible and how much would be deducted from taxes?

Answer 1

mileage driving for charitable work is deductible at .14 cents per mile for 2007, also expenses you incur for charity (mainly contributions, or things you bought that you then donated), but you cannot deduct your time. And of course, you have to be able to itemize to get any benefit from charitable contributions.

Answer 2

Out of pocket expenses, including mileage, can be deductible if you itemize. There is no deduction allowed for the value of your time.

If you are 17 it would be unusual for you to have enough itemized deductions to itemize, but if you did, you could deduct the volunteer out-of-pocket expenses as a charitable deduction. If it's deductible, the taxes saved are at most the expenses times your tax bracket, so if your espenses are $500 and your tax bracket was 15%, you'd save at most $75 in taxes. If you take the standard deduction, there is no tax break for volunteering.

And your tax information is separate from your parents', so any deduction would go to you, not to them, if you are the one doing the volunteering.

Answer 3

There is not really a specific number of hours. However, the volunteering has to be the reason for the trip. You cannot deduct the cost of going on vacation by doing some volunteer work for an hour. You have to do enough volunteer work and little enough of everything else that one might travel to the country to do (sightseeing, etc.), so that the purpose of the trip is clearly to do the volunteer work, and not to get to see the country.

Answer 4

Volunteering For Charity Can Produce Tax Deductions
With the encouragement of the President, more individuals are volunteering their services to charitable work as part of the national fight against terrorism. People who volunteer their services generally do so as a philanthropic gesture, but they should be aware of the tax breaks arising from their generosity.

Value of Services
There is no deduction for the value of services provided to a charity, even if an individual would normally be paid for the services provided. For example, an attorney who provides free legal services cannot deduct what he or she would normally charge for those services.

Away-from-home Travel
Volunteers frequently pay their own way when they travel away from home overnight in connection with charitable work. These out-of-pocket costs are deductible if they are properly substantiated, are reasonable in amount, and there is no significant element of personal pleasure, recreation, or vacation in the travel. Deductible expenses include the taxpayer's out-of-pocket round-trip travel cost, hotel, lodging, and meals.

Transportation By Car
Volunteers who use their vehicles in connection with volunteer charitable work (e.g., driving to a charitable location where the services are performed, delivering food packages to the poor, etc.) may deduct either the actual, unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses directly attributable to the charitable work, such as expenses for gas and oil or 14¢ per charitable-use mile.

Entertaining for Charity
Volunteers may deduct the cost of entertaining others on behalf of a charity (e.g., wining and dining potential large contributors), but the costs of the volunteers’ own entertainment (or meals) is not deductible.

Purchase of Equipment (Assets) Needed to Perform Volunteer Duties
Volunteers who purchase assets and use them while performing volunteer services for a charity can't deduct their cost if the volunteer retains ownership of the asset, even if it is used exclusively for charitable purposes.

Cost of Maintaining an Asset
A taxpayer may deduct the cost of maintaining a personally-owned asset to the extent its use relates to providing services for a charity. For example, a volunteer can deduct the fuel, maintenance and repair costs (but not depreciation or the fair rental value) of piloting his plane in connection with volunteer activities for the Civil Air Patrol. Similarly, a taxpayer who participates in a mounted posse, which is a civilian reserve unit of the county sheriff's office, can deduct the cost of maintaining a horse but not the cost of the animal.

Uniforms
The cost of uniforms that are required to be worn when providing services to a charity are deductible as long as the uniforms have no general utility.

Answer 5

Your time spent volunteering is not tax deductible. Your expenses incurred while volunteering for a recognized charity is deductible.

Answer 6

At 18, you probably don't earn enough to claim it. What is deductible is the mileage that you put on your car. Time is not deductible. I suspect that if you did enough mileage on the car, and they were aware of your travel, they should have claimed it on their return.

Answer 7

Volunteering is free, your not suppose to be getting paid, therefore you wouldn't be able to even receive taxes on it to be tax deductable.