Donation to a school - what paperwork is needed to make this detuctable?

[usarose 18]

Please help. I did search for similar topics but came up without a good answer.

I cleaned a high school kitchen last week as a donation with my Clean and Recovery rig. They gave me a letter acknowledging that I made a donated and thanked me. Do I need to just attach paperwork to show the value of the donation and claim it as a detuction or do they need to specify the value on the letter they gave me?

Rob

[northwestern 14]

First you need to write up a bill. It can be whatever amount you want it to be...as long as it looks realistic, not $30,000. I think you can also carry over the amount if you don't need that much deductions. Then you need to have them acknowledge the bill and have them write a letter that the described work was done and that the amount was waived for donation purposes. You'll need schedule A line 16 and the directions are on page A-4 of your tax book. It'll probably change for next year, but should be close.

[Deck Guy 14]

Is it deductible if they are not a 403c corporation, such as a public school? Or can you just deduct your costs as unreimbursed business expenses?

[northwestern 14]

From page A-4 of IRS taxbook:

"Examples of Qualified Charitable Organizations...Nonprofit schools...Federal, state, and local goverments if the gifts are solely for public purposes...Contributions can be in...volunteer work for the kinds of organizations described earlier. If you drove to and from the volunteer work, you can take the actual cost of gas and oil or 14 cents a mile...Add parking and tolls to the amount you claim under either method. But do not deduct any amounts that were repaid to you."

Public schools are state, fedral, and local. The tax book explains everything. Page A-4 for directions and Form A/B line 16.

[PressurePros 249]

You cannot claim a deduction for a charitable donation of service.

[northwestern 14]

So you can hand a $2,000.00 check to the school and that's alright, but providing $2,000.00 in service free of charge is not deductible? Rob's Truck and rig and all his tools are worthless? Now...he can't deduct his hourly wage, but he can charge XX.xx an hour for the use of his tools and his milage. How much does it cost to rent a truck and a pw rig and all the tools to go with it? $80,$90,$100 an hour? How about $2,000.00 a job? I read the tax law on this one and you can find a way to deduct what you need to deduct.

[PressurePros 249]

The problem I think is in the valuation. Rob has an awesome piece of equipment and having that piece of equipment on a jobsite costs X amount of dollars. The problem arises when Rob says.. "with my superior equipment I charge this much for this type of job." The IRS takes issue because the same job may have been able to be performed by Joe Hack whom has a HD special and charges much less for the same job. Same goes for an attorney or doctor. One lawyer may charge $600/hr while another fledgling recent law school grad may be lucky to get $75/hr. In one fell swoop the IRS disallowed all donations of service.

I'm sure there are some loopholes but for that one must contact their accountant.

[PressurePros 249]

PS: Volunteer work and donations are two different things.