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Show Tax deductions explained by U.S. Revenue Service Roland V. Wise of the Internal In-ternal Revenue office in Salt Lake City said today that many taxpayers ask what amount is allowed for contributions contribu-tions on the Federal return. He explained that the standard deduction is in lieu of all item ized deductions for contributions, contribu-tions, interest, taxes, medical expenses and other deductions. Once the taxpayer elects to itemize it-emize these deductions, he is allowed only what he actually paid. Mr. Wise said a contribution bv an individual must actually be paid before the end of the tax year. This rule applies even to individual taxpayers who report re-port on an accrual basis. He said deductible contributions contribu-tions include gifts to religious, charitable, educational, scientific scien-tific or literary organizations, and organizations for the prevention pre-vention of cruelty to children or animals, so long as the organization or-ganization is not operated for personal profit and does not carry on propaganda or otherwise other-wise attempt to influence legislation. leg-islation. Of particular interest to this area is the status of missionary mission-ary contributions. Where payments pay-ments are made to a missionary mission-ary fund of a charitable organization organ-ization and the charitable organization or-ganization is given full control of the donated funds and discretion dis-cretion as to their use, such contributions qualify as deductible deduc-tible contributions. However, if the donor gives the contribution contri-bution to the missionary, it is not a deductible contribution. If the donor gives the contributions contri-butions to a charitabel organization organi-zation and the contributions are earmarked by the donor for a particular individual, they are treated in effect as being contributions to the individual designated rather than to the charitable organization and represent personal expenses, the deduction of which is prohibited pro-hibited by the Internal Revenue Reve-nue Code. |