How to Donate garden produce and receive a tax break

Getting a tax break for excess garden vegetables.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Vegetables and you need to itemize your taxes

1. In order to get a tax break by donating to a food Bank, you need to be able to itemize on your taxes.

2. Then, find a food bank that accepts fresh vegetables, as not all of them do.
   
   Ask them what days they accept food, and ask if they have a refrigerator. Winter squash, for example, will store very well if there is no refrigerator, but, lettuce will not.

3. Bring them any excess garden produce, and you MUST get a receipt!
   
   The receipt will NOT state how much the vegetables are worth, just how many and of what sorts. Finding a fair price is YOUR job.
   
   I usually set the price as to what the grocery store charges.

4. When have your taxes done, take your receipts in with you. The tax preparer will decrease your income by the amount of money that the vegetables are worth. If you are in the 25% tax bracket, and you decrease your income by $100 by donating vegetables to charity, then you have saved yourself $25 as well as feeding people who are hungry.

5. Hunger happens. If you are a good gardener, this is a worthy deed as well as a profitable one.