Political donations aren't tax deductible?

Man, thank goodness I didn't shell out those 10G's I was planning on sending to Obama! haha .... j/k of course. But seriously, i had no idea you couldn't write them off. I bet you used to be able to, but like always, someone (or a bunch of someones) ruined it for all of us.

It's surely not the end of the world, and def. shouldn't be one of the top reasons to donate to a cause, but it did get me thinking. Esp. considering i was just about to donate for the first time ever to a campaign! (can you guess whose?) I would have just slapped it right into my "contributions" folder at home, an added it to next year's tax #'s.

I guess it's good that I subscribe to Money Magazine then ;) Their brief, and to the point, write up on this caught my eager eyes on my daily commute in this morning. It was titled, "Funding Your Candidate" (June, pg23) and shared 3 things to keep in mind:

1) You can give only so much. There are actually caps on how much you can donate - imagine that! Here are the limits each person can donate for 2008 (they are adjusted every 2 years for inflation):

• $2,300 per candidate, per primary
• $2,300 per candidate, per general election
• $28,500 to a national party
• $10,000 per state or local party
• $5,000 per political action committee (PAC)
• UNLIMITED donations to a 527 - some sort of candidate lobby group...maybe this is why i hear of people donating $100,000 here, $200,000 there?

2) Your info will go public. W-O-W, never saw that one coming! (i'm being serious there...although to some of you it will probably come across sarcastic. haha) Apparently there were some reforms after Watergate, and every time you make a contribution, you ALSO have to provide the following:

• your name
• your job
• your employer
• your address

Now, if your total donations are UNDER $200, then your info will just stay w/ the campaign. BUT, and a very interesting one indeed, if your contributions go OVER $200, your info then gets forwarded to the FEC, who then posts it on their website - FEC.gov !!! And then there is ANOTHER then, where it THEN gets picked up by sites like OpenSecrets.org, and FundRace.org who put them in searchable databases! Please excuse another one - W-O-W!

3) No Federal tax deductions for any contribution. We already covered this one, but Money does a good job of pointing another option out for those deductible-hungry citizens. And that is to donate the said money to a charity that your candidate supports. This way, you help them out, the charity out, and yourself out ;)

So, what will i be doing with this new found information? I'm gonna donate directly to my man Obama. As I've mentioned, I've never once done so in my lifetime, and since my budget only allows for amounts UNDER $200, I won't have to get freaked out about my info all over the net.

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I just gave a homeless person $10.

I didn't even really mean to! haha...I literally get asked at LEAST twice per work day (we're in downtown D.C.), and I find that I react depending on my mood. Somedays I get pissed that they're out there pan handling, and then others (like today) I get wrapped up in their stories and feel soooooo bad that I end up giving in.

Most times I'll donate, $1.00, if that. It just so happend that i didn't have one, and what was i supposed to do, ask for change?! oh man....so, he got a crisp $10'er. it felt really good afterwards, so I think i made the right choice on this one. I just hope he really DOES use it for the good!

How do you guys handle this? I've heard people say they only donate to "reputable charities" that then help out the homeless, while I've heard others say they just give whatever change is in their pocket at the time.

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I started giving to charities today!

One thing i learned from the Automatic Millionaire is to make donations. Soooo, with that, i decided to start today while it's still fresh in my mind:

$20.00 --> Military Archdiocese. I remembered they had a place to donate on their site yesterday, so figured a better start than any.
$25.00 --> Idol Gives Back. They are freakin' awesome, best fund raiser E-V-E-R.
$15.00 --> Showukare.com. A friend forwarded this to me this morning. You even get a shirt!

Wow, i just flew through $60...is it bad that i'm starting to have buyers remorse? haha... i'm not used to doing this :) One day i'll be pimp enough to give every month.

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