The Tuesday after Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving) has been deemed “Giving Tuesday,” a day promoting making donations to nonprofit organizations - monetary or otherwise.
If your clients are participating in Giving Tuesday, it’s important they know what sorts of records they need to keep in order to receive a deduction. The IRS has a tool that may help them make sure their donations are as beneficial as possible.
Tax Exempt Organization Search on IRS.gov is a tool that allows users to search for tax-exempt charities, which allows taxpayers to determine if their donations are tax-deductible charitable contributions.
Here are some things to know about the TEOS tool:
- It provides information about the organization’s federal tax status and filings.
- It’s mobile friendly.
- Donors can use it to confirm the organization is tax-expempt and eligible to receive tax-deductible charitable contributions.
- Users can find out if an organization had its tax-exempt status revoked.
- Organizations are listed under their legal name on file with the IRS.
- Search results are sortable by name, EIN, state and country.
- Users can download entire lists of organizations eligible to receive deductible contributions.
Taxpayers can also use the Can I Deduct my Charitable Contributions? tool.
If your client does make a monetary contribution, they will need a receipt from the organization. All other donations will need to have a fair market value assessment of items donated.
About NATP ResearchNATP Federal Tax Researchers
Our on-site team of tax professionals answers more than 20,000 questions each year on a variety of federal tax issues affecting your clients. Several of our tax researchers are CPAs and enrolled agents with broad tax knowledge and access to the most diverse research library in the industry.
For research help, contact us at 800-558-3402, ext. 2 or submit your question on our online form.
Information included in this article is accurate as of the publish date. This post is not reflective of tax law changes or IRS guidance that may have occurred after the date of publishing. All taxpayer circumstances are different, and NATP recommends contacting research services if you have specific questions about your clients’ tax situations.