What Percentage of a Charitable Contribution Do You Get Back on a Tax Return?

Video Transcript

"Have you made a gift to a charity in 2008? Hi, this is Roger Groh, with Groh Asset Management. If you did, then that gift may be deductible on your 2008 tax. Mechanically, the way that it works is you get a credit that helps reduce the amount of income tax that you would have paid, in this case in 2008. How much is that credit worth? Well, it would depend upon a number of other things with in your individual tax return, and the city, state in which you are located. Everyone is different, and every contribution is different. Not one hundred percent of all contributions are deductible, and if you, and even if they are deductible not one hundred percent of what you gave to them may not be deductible. One of the great tools that exist today are the financial planning calculators that you can get for free on websites. Such as HR Block. You can plug in your income, and expenses, and charitable contributions. And see what difference it makes because you can change the contributions on the website. Remember, this is just for analysis to determine if you give another dollar what does that do from a tax point of view. Hope that helps. I'm Roger Groh at Groh Asset. Thank you very much for spending time with me."