Make Sure You Get Full Tax Benefits on Cash Gifts to Charities

If you are in a generous mood and planning on giving a cash gift to a favorite charity this Christmas season, the Internal Revenue Service has some recommendations for claiming the contribution on your 2014 tax return.

David Tucker with the IRS in Seattle says to make sure the donation is made before the year's end and he says:

“If they want to claim it as an itemized deduction then they need to make sure that organization is a tax excempt organization by federal standards.”

You can find that information at the IRS website, irs.gov. Tucker says just put in the words, select check in the search engine, then put in the information for the organization and it will tell you if the organization is recognized by the federal government as tax-exempt.