Donations to Haiti Earthquake Victims – an accelerated tax benefit available

The Senate and the House have approved H.R. 4462, a bill to accelerate the income tax benefits for charitable cash contributions for the relief of victims of the earthquake in Haiti. The bill permits taxpayers to treat qualifying cash contributions made after 1/11/10 and before 3/1/10 as made on 12/31/09, and therefore deductible as an itemized charitable deduction on the taxpayers' 2009 income tax return. The bill also provides that a telephone bill will satisfy the recordkeeping requirements if it shows the name of the donee organization, the date of the contribution, and the amount of the contribution. Thus, a charitable contribution made by text message and chargeable to a telephone or wireless account qualifies if the bill from the telecommunications company contains the required information.