This is a very simple option to optimize the tax credit you receive on donations you make to registered charities. You do however, need to have a dependable filing system since you’ll be holding on to your receipts for a few years.
The first $200 of charitable donations are eligible for a 15% federal tax credit, any amount over that receives a 29% federal tax credit. Where you have some room to make this work to your advantage, without donating more than you would have, is that you do not need to claim your donations in the current year, you can claim up to 5 years later.
So let’s say your total donations in a year are $200. If you claim this each year, this would give you a $30 tax credit every year, totaling $180 over 6 years. If you where to save all your receipts and file on the 6th year, you would be able to claim $1,200. This would provide a tax credit of $320, $30 on the first $200 and $290 on the remaining $1,000. In this example, by holding your receipts for 6 years, you get an extra $140 back on the total donations. You could max this out a bit more by making extra donations, before December 31st of the final year, maybe with the donations you would have made in the following year.
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