By SANDRA BLOCK
USA Today
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Wealthy individuals and big corporations are contributing millions of dollars to hurricane relief. You want to help out, too, but by the time you pay for your mortgage, groceries and gas, there's not much left for charity.
Fortunately, there are many ways to help that will cost you practically nothing. Here are some creative ways to give:
First, your employer has to set up a program to turn your unused days into cash and give the money to hurricane-related charities. If you're interested, talk to your employer about establishing a program, says IRS Commissioner Mark Everson. "It's not going to be burdensome for employers," he says.
Many companies don't let workers carry over unused vacation days, says Leigh Griffith, a tax attorney with Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis in Nashville, Tenn. If you have vacation days you know you won't use by year's end, you can donate the value of them to charity.
Workers who have used up all their vacation days for this year can still donate. The program will continue through 2006, Everson says.
It's up to your employer to determine the value of your unused days, Griffith says. You can't deduct leave-based donations on your tax returns. However, employers can deduct the value of the donated days as a business expense.
The IRS offered a similar leave-based program after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but few companies signed up. The IRS is hoping for more participation this time because the needs are so much greater, Everson says.
"This is a really big, affected area with hundreds of thousands of families," he says.
Here's an alternative: Give those miles to charity. Most major airlines allow you to donate frequent-flier miles to selected charities. You can find more information at your airlines' Internet site. The Red Cross Web site, www.redcross.org, also lists major airlines that allow customers to donate their frequent-flier miles to the Red Cross.
The miles are used to transport volunteers and staff to disaster areas. Some airlines will provide matching mileage contributions. Most require a minimum contribution, ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 miles.
A tax bill pending in Congress would help volunteers offset some of their transportation costs. Volunteers who itemize can deduct the cost of using their vehicles at a rate of 14 cents a mile. If that sounds stingy, it is: Congress hasn't increased the rate since 1997.
Bills approved by the House and Senate last week would deliver a bigger deduction. The House bill would raise the rate to 70 percent of the IRS standard mileage rate, which is claimed by taxpayers who use their personal vehicles for work.
