Travel expenses. Volunteers can deduct travel expenses, such as airfare and other transportation, accommodations and meals, when performing services away from home. It might include trips to attend a convention or meeting, taking underprivileged kids on a camping trip, or monitoring environmental destruction. However, the volunteer cannot gain significant personal pleasure, recreation, or vacation from the travel and the volunteer must be working - tagging along on an outing while performing nominal duties, or having no duties for significant parts of the trip, will not qualify.


Other expenses. If you pay for any of the organization’s expenses and aren’t reimbursed, these costs can count as charitable deductions as well. Deductions might include unreimbursed phone, postage, and copying charges associated with meeting preparation; animal shelter volunteers could deduct treats they are asked to buy that they use to train dogs; Sunday school teachers can deduct art supplies they buy.


Tax Deductions = Volunteer Rewards


Volunteers donating time may qualify for certain tax deductions. IRS will allow volunteers at nonprofits to deduct the following from their taxable income:


Transportation expenses. Volunteers can deduct car and transportation expenses incurred to get back and forth from home to the volunteer office, to meetings or other sites (e.g., special event or delivering food to a patient) and parking fees and tolls are deductible. Volunteers cannot claim general car repair, maintenance expenses, depreciation, registration fees, or cost of tires or insurance. Public transportation costs can be deducted subway, bus, or taxi fare.


Those who drive can choose between deducting actual costs or taking a mileage deduction at the rate of 14 cents per mile.


1) Standard mileage rate. Most people find this method the simplest way to track expenses. You can create a spreadsheet and track the following information: Date, Purpose, Odometer Start, Odometer End, Total Trip Mileage, Additional Costs (i.e. parking, tolls). Keep a copy of the spreadsheet in your car as you accrue mileage. At year end, add up mileage and multiply by the $0.14 mileage rate.


2) Direct expenses (actual costs of gas and oil): With the cost of gasoline, it may pay to keep track of actual driving expenses. If you use this method, you need to keep some of the same information as above (date, purpose and miles driven), but you must also keep receipts associated with the fuel and oil expenses.


Pay Forward, Give Back


Reciprocity with others in life is a mutual exchange of giving and getting. At the heart of this concept is volunteering


Volunteer Your Time: If you have more time than money, or simply enjoy interacting with others, you can make a difference in a charity or cause that’s important to you by donating your time. This is a great way for many to feel the satisfaction of giving back and making a difference, while providing an outlet to meet others who share your passion, and often allowing you the opportunity to directly see the difference you make and the people you help. Volunteering is also beneficial in other ways.


Health: Research shows that volunteering provides individual health benefits, in addition to social benefits and increases self-confidence. One study, “The Health Benefits of Volunteering: A Review of Recent Research,” establishes a strong relationship between volunteering and health. It found that those who volunteer have lower mortality rates, greater functional ability, and lower rates of depression later in life than those who do not volunteer. Comparisons of the health benefits of volunteering for different age groups have also shown that older volunteers are the most likely to receive greater benefits from volunteering, providing physical and social activity and a sense of purpose at a time when their social roles are changing. Older adults may also be seeking to compensate for role changes that occur with aging. Some findings also indicate that volunteers who devote a minimum 100 hours per year in volunteering activities are the most likely to exhibit positive health benefits.


Uniforms. If volunteers are requested to purchase a uniform - e.g., aprons identifying them as a hospital helper - they can deduct both the purchase price and upkeep costs. However, the uniform must not be suitable for everyday use (a T-shirt or being asked to always wear black does not qualify). Also, the organization must require the volunteers to wear the uniforms while performing services.


Limits on Deductions The organization must be a qualified, IRS-recognized charity. Volunteers must itemize their deductions on their tax return; if you don’t itemize deductions such as mortgage interest, etc. and only use the standard deduction then you cannot get a deduction for volunteer expenses. The deduction is taken on the Schedule A of the 1040 “Itemized Deductions” (using a 1040EZ won’t get any benefit).


Volunteers cannot claim expenses which the nonprofit has reimbursed..


Expenses must be directly related to the volunteers’ work and incurred only because of that work.


Expenses can’t be personal, for family, or for living items or activities. There is no deduction for the actual time spent volunteering. Volunteers must keep reliable written records of the expenses.


More information: IRS pub #526 at IRS.gov, or consult your tax advisor.


“Studies of the relationship between volunteering and health


demonstrate when older adults volunteer, they not only help their community but also experience better health in later years. These findings are particularly relevant today as 77 million Americans reach the age typically associated with retirement. We know that Baby Boomers in their late 40s to mid-50s are volunteering at a higher rate than earlier generations did at the same age.” Corporation for National and Community Service


Purpose: People are usually happier with meaning in their lives and part of living a meaningful life is having a feeling of making a difference. Oprah recently demonstrated the ‘giver’s high’ one experiences when helping others by replacing her usually holiday giveaway show with a show where she inspired and enabled audience members to give away $1000 in any way they chose; the audience agreed what they got back was greater than what they gave.


Possible Extra Benefit: Many volunteers have transitioned into paid positions in the company where they have been volunteering. This is a win-win for both, because you are a “known” element to the staff and now you know the ins and outs of the company/non-profit enough to make an informed decision.


“The real secret of a happy old age is being once more in service for others carried on to the end of life – a service which, on the one hand, gives perennial interest to life by making the person a participant in the lives of all those around, and on the other, surrounds that person with love in return.” Edmund Sanford, 1902


February 2012 ♦ YOUNG AT HEART 19


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