I'm sorry for your loss, vickij. When my father died, my brother took the deduction on the items we donated because it was more beneficial in his tax situation than ours. However..... my DH is now telling me that was not *proper* although to my knowledge, my brother has had no issues with the IRS - probably because the donation was not significant enough to trigger any IRS alarms. According to my DH, you must take possession of the items at least until the estate is settled, possibly longer, before you can donate as yours and take a deduction. Otherwise, the deduction rightfully belongs to the estate. PLEASE check this out with a CPA or your tax adviser - my DH is a business owner and has a lot of experience with various tax situations but is not an expert.

Working as a tax preparer I'm surprised by the difference (and often indifference) in giving. Here is some idea of the various levels of giving that I see and some traits that are pretty common within that level of giving. I have a number of clients that earn a middle-income and give $3000 or more each year to charity. From my experience those that give the most generously are active church participants though their donations are not limited to church nor is the majority of the donations to a church. Most of their donations are for a minimum of $100 to each individual charity and often to the same charities each year. The next group of donators is executives earning a higher income. Most often their donations are payroll deductions to United Way and vary from $520 to $1040 per year. As you might guess they work for companies that host United Way employee fundraising meeting. Quite often this is the only donation they make. The next group of donators is your average earner. They often have a weekly payroll deduction ($52-$104/year) to the United Way. Often include church donations of around $500 per year. Notable this group of donators while providing smaller dollar donations of $5-$50 is the biggest supporter of the local police, fire company, kids charities, and veterans charities. They may give to different charities each year. Overall their donations usually fall between $200-$700 per year. But the surprise to me is how many people do not give any charitable donations especially those with higher incomes ($100,000+). I was also surprised by how very few clients made donations in support of Katrina. I've noticed while preparing returns this year the amount of charitable donations was less than last year. The higher cost this past year for gas, increased property taxes, and medical expenses was often mentioned. I expect that next year with the requirement that donations require a receipt (or cancelled check for donations of less than $250) will further decrease the amount of donations that are claimed. On a personal note I will say that this year I too have less charitable deductions on my tax return than in previous years. Some of this is because my income was much lower this year. And some of it is because instead of donating to a charity we chose instead to help some friends and family in need. We gave some money to a friend who's husband was injured and could not work for 3 months. It was not alot of money but very appreciated. And last year a client of mine was very ill and out of work. I sent a note and a check to them as I knew they were facing financial problems with the loss of income and medical expenses. We also have a family member facing a serious medical problem and we helped them out. So our tax-deductible donations have been less but our hearts are in the right place.

" She has somewhat limited accounting skills and told me this year that the paper that I gave her last year detailing how to arrange the payments was too small, to which I said that I had meant it as a guide as she set up her account book. " I'm afraid I LOL at this one! Not that I haven't misunderstood some equally commonsense things at times. Of course common sense often depends heavily on knowledge, so if the knowledge isn't there, neither is the sense.

I hear you WC, our city council spent $300,000 (unauthorized by voters)to study the "aquatic park" when $300,000 would have majorily improved one of our ageing summer only pools that had to be closed last year. The new proposal is that the ageing pool be rebuilt and covered for year-round use(with many up-grades), and up-dating the other outdoor summer only pool. I personally think that the residents will approve that plan as I do. And, added to our real estate taxes. It also occurs to me that there is a huge cultural and historic difference between those communities in the Eastern states and those here in the West. DH went to Syracuse University in the late 50's and we were so shocked at the school systems back then. We also lived in the greater DC area and North Carolina over the years and found them so 'different' from what we knew as Californians. We never paid for a book and other supplies, so were surprised that families in New York had to. Many things have changed here in the west especially since California's prop 13 (another story) so changed the more scocialist leanings. OUR expectation of having government supplied services is just different...I believe, so maybe that allows us to be more willing to pay the piper. Just thinking.