Do you take donations and church offerings off on your taxes?

I don't at the moment, but I do plan to start. You are thinking of the negative side of it, but you have to also look at the positive side. The money you can get back from the government is just more than you can give again. It is kind of like the government saying here is some money to give to the organization you feel it should go to.

You can always do your taxes without claiming this money and then do it again when you claim it. Take the extra money you get back and give it to a good organization.

I think my Dad Does. I don't know, I know we give thousands of dollars to god. I understand where your getting that from but yeah, I think people should get back what they have gave. Even if it was to a church or some Goodwill or etc. Even though it's better to give then take, I guess adding things to your taxes is just liek athnka you from god orr good work or heads up. Thats how I see things, Still My Family is large I guesss we need the tax money^_^, I still understand your point of view and I agree.^_^

giving should have nothing to do with an economical calculation. it should be giving, period.

I don't because I don't usually itemize my taxes. I would do it if I itemized, though. I don't see a problem with it. My wife doesn't think we should, but I don't see what the big deal is. So what if Uncle Sam has to give you back a little more on your tax return. The Bible says to "give unto Caesar what is Caesar's". The government takes enough money from me in the form of other taxes. Our ability to get some of it back by claiming our tithes and offering as a tax deduction is a gift from God if you ask me...

No i don't but it is not because i think it is wrong,i don't really know if it is wrong or not,but if you feel like it is then i would just go with my feelings..I can understand how you feel,and it does seem wrong in a way.. I do not file taxes anymore because i am on disability and we do not have to ...I always donate things to charity like cloths,household items and such..If i have something that i hardly ever wear or don't ever wear it,i donate it...I am not one to hold onto items that i do not use,other people can use it...

I take money that I donate off of my taxes; however, I do not donate money to get a decrease in my taxes. That is money I would have donated anyway, its just kind of a way for me to make what little that I have go further. I will take anything off my taxes that I can. I think it would be immoral (and illogical too actually) to donate things just to get a decrease in taxes.

I agree. I use to work at Good Will as a matter of fact over 10 years ago. A lot of people that wore nice clothes and drove up in nice cars always wanted a tax receipt. I didn't mind writing them one out. Although some asked for mor then I thought it was really worth for used clothes. I know I never have when I gave my old clothes there. The same goes for church that is money to help out God and his people that spread his word.

But don't you think that the people who donated the clothes to you may have written them off on their taxes? I've never itemized because I've never donated enough stuff to be able to get any money back from it.

But I don't see anything wrong with doing it. You don't get all the money back anyway. I think the whole point of that system was created so people can partially pay back what they donated. A lot of people will actually take out credit cards to make a pretty significant donation to some foundation or what ever. I know at church it's different because you just drop what you can into the collection plate. And people don't do enough of that in order to get it back.

So as I was saying people will use a credit card to make a significant donation to whatever foundation, this may set them back a bit but people will do this to help those less fortunate then them. So at the end of the year they can itemize this and then get some of it back to pay off that credit card. In order to ease up on them a bit.

If you did this for your church, say your church wanted to move, or build into a nicer church, or even build a youth center (anything that will take quite a bit of money) and were asking for donations for this, you say, "Okay I want to help because it's for the best" So you take out a credit card for 10 grand and donate it so you can help your church in it's mission. So no one is going to think any less of you for helping others then helping your self so it doesn't completely set you back. And least of all I don't believe God is going to think any less of you for it. In fact God only helps those who helps themselves. <------ and I don't mean in a selfish way. I hope you all get my point.

I dont get receipts when I donate items like clothing or household items. I also dont use any of the church donations for taxes either.

I do use the receipts i get from Telemircale or Relay for Life/Canadian Cancer society for taxes IF i donate enough at once to warrante the organization sending me the tax receipt.

We don't donate to a church but we do donate to the homeless shelter here in my city all the time (my uncle is the director) and we do write it off of our taxes. We pay so much in taxes it's not funny, and we have to pay someone to do our taxes because they are so hard, this year we paid $900.00 to get them done. We don't donate to get the tax credit but we do use it because if we didn't we would have to pay probably an extra $2000. a year.