Tsunami donation tax cutoff Monday

By Deborah Adamson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Taxpayers have until the end of this month to donate money toward tsunami relief in the Indian Ocean disaster and still be able to deduct their charitable giving from 2004 taxes.

To encourage last-minute largesse, a new federal tax law has extended the 2004 deadline for tsunami charitable donations to Monday. Typically, donations had to have been made by the end of the year to be deducted from that year's taxes.

The new law allows only for cash contributions and taxpayers can choose to take the deduction in 2004 or 2005, not both. The tax break is available to people who itemize deductions. Donors should indicate on the memo area of their checks that the money is for tsunami relief.

The deduction is available to people who donate to qualified, domestic tax-exempt charities. Money given to foreign groups generally is not deductible. For a list of groups, go to www.usaid.gov/locations/
asia_near_east/tsunami/ngolist.html or www.usafreedomcorps.gov.

To find out if your charity is a qualified group, call the IRS at (877) 829-5500.

It's not yet clear whether the tax extension would apply to Hawai'i tax returns.

Cathleen Tokishi, tax information specialist at the state Department of Taxation, said the Legislature needs to vote to adopt federal tax law changes before Hawai'i taxpayers can claim the same extension.

Reach Deborah Adamson at dadamson@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8088.