Question

Can I use my church homeless outreach ministry that I volunteer with?

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
February 20, 2021
1 reply
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I am part of the ministry in which we go out monthly and distribute food bags and hygiene bags, using items purchased out of pocket. We use our gas and mileage to travel across the city to highly populated homeless areas.

TurboTax Deluxe Online

B

BillM223

If the ministry is an official part of the church and if your church qualifies as a charitable organization (see this IRS webpage), then money that you spend to further the mission of the charity can be deducted on Schedule A.

Do a Search (upper right) for charitable contributions and click on the jump-to link (Mac users must find charitable contributions in the Topics List).

Choose mileage and then proceed through the interview, entering your mileage. Your gas cost is included in the mileage. Your alternative to mileage is to use actual costs (gas, oil) but no mileage.

Any items you buy out-of-pocket to contribute can be listed as a charitable contribution as "Items" (see the charitable contribution interview in Schedule A).

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O

Opus 17

Employee

Churches are not required to be listed in the IRS exempt organization database.

If you drive your vehicle in support of the mission of a church or charitable organization, you can take a charity mileage deduction. If audited, the IRS will expect you to have proof of the mileage driven in the form of a diary or logbook that lists the date, the purpose of the trip and the mileage driven. You can’t deduct anything in addition to the standard mileage rate except for parking or highway tolls. The standard mileage rate includes an allowance for gas.

If you buy products and donate them to a registered to charity or church, you can deduct them as an item donation. You can use the price you paid as the value of the item in TurboTax. If audited, the IRS will expect you to have proof of the items you purchased and their cost, as well as proof that you donated the items to the church or charity. This will usually be in the form of a letter from the church or charity thanking you for your service and your contributions. The letter does not have to prove the value of the donations, because you will do that with your separate purchase records. But you must have an acknowledgment of some kind that will show the IRS that the items on the receipts that you show them were actually donated to the charity.

You can’t deduct anything for the value of your time.