published January, 2007
Starting in August ’06 going forward, cash donations need a receipt. This is new. If you put money in the church collection plate, you’ll need to do it by check, or get a receipt, if you want to deduct it. (The old law was that you needed a receipt for amounts of $250 or more). Your cancelled check or credit card statement should suffice for a receipt for cash donations.
Clothing and household items must now (as of Aug 17 ’06) be in “good used condition or better.” For single items worth over $500 they may be in less than “good” condition, provided you “include a qualified appraisal of the item WITH THE RETURN” – Oy! (The good news is that it appears you may donate over $500 value, if in “good” or better condition). For the over $500 set, you’ll still need info on the donee, which hasn’t changed. Take a photo of clothing or household goods you want to donate.
published January, 2007
The IRS says the new maximum rate for mileage reimbursement deduction is 48.5 cents per mile for 2007. In ’06 they changed the rate mid-year, so I’m not promising they will stick with this rate for the whole of ’07.
published January, 2007
Apparently, phone companies collected a tax from March ’03-August ’06 that was deemed unconstitutional, and they’re going to refund it on 2006 income tax returns.
Individuals can figure the exact tax, or do a “standard” of $30 for a single person, $40 for a couple, $50 or $60. This tax is refundable.
For businesses, you can collect the exact amount if you have 41 phone bills, or you can use the formula based on a ‘sample.’ You’ll need a copy of your April ’06 and September ’06 bills, AND to know the amount you spent by month for the 41 months, or a total paid for the each of the years 03-06—maybe a QuickBooks report?
For AT&T, this tax appears to have been collected on Long Distance. Cingular appears to have collected on the whole bill.
I did my business phone bills and I’m getting $131 refunded from the IRS, which is weird on an “S” Corp return.