Two New Tax Benefits to Donors
The CARES Act, the federal law approved following the start of the Covid pandemic, includes changes for 2020 which make it easier for donors to support charitable organizations such as Pathway Home of the Finger Lakes.
The CARES Act allows individual taxpayers to deduct donations to charity of up to $300 on their 2020 federal tax return, even though they take the standard deduction. Married-filing-jointly taxpayers will have a $600 cap.
For those donors who are still able to itemize their deductions, and therefore directly write off gifts to charity, the current deduction cap is 60 percent of adjusted gross income. The CARES Act lifts these caps to 100 percent for individuals and joint filers.
The window for taking advantage of these changes closes on December 31, 2020.