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A Novel Way to Make Hurricane Relief Donations

On December 22, 2017, The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law. The information in this article predates the tax reform legislation and may not apply to tax returns starting in the 2018 tax year. You may wish to speak to your tax advisor about the latest tax law. This publication is provided for your convenience and does not constitute legal advice. This publication is protected by copyright.

A Novel Way to Make Hurricane Relief Donations
Article Highlights:
  • Donating unused vacation time, sick leave and personal time 
  • Employer’s Function 
  • Great Donation Opportunity 
As they have done before in the wake of disasters, including Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy, the Internal Revenue Service is providing special relief that allows employees to donate their unused paid vacation, sick leave, and personal leave time to recent hurricane relief efforts.

Here is how it works: if your employer is participating, you can relinquish any unused and paid vacation time, sick leave and personal leave for cash payments which your employer will donate to qualified hurricane relief charitable organizations. The cash payment will not be treated as wages to you and your employer can deduct the amount donated as a business expense. However, since the income isn’t taxable to you, you will not be allowed to claim the donation as a charitable deduction on your tax return. Even so, excluding income is often worth more as tax savings than a potential tax deduction, especially if you generally claim the standard deduction or you are subject to AGI-based limitations.

This special relief applies to all donations made before January 1, 2019, giving individuals over a year to forgo their unused paid vacation, sick and leave time and have the cash value donated to a worthy cause.

This is a great opportunity to provide sorely needed help in the aftermath of the recent hurricanes without costing you anything but time. Contact your employer to make a donation. If your employer is unaware of his program refer them to IRS Notice 2017-48 for further details.

If you have questions related to donating leave time for hurricane relief efforts or other charitable contributions, please contact this office.






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