Tips for Tax Discount on Charitable Donations in United States

Charity brings meaning to life. The donor is deeply satisfied with his own self when his gift is able to change a life and serve a greater purpose to humanity. Charity is a two-way path. The more you give the more blessings you get in return. Giving to charity helps both the recipient and the donor. While charity enables an individual to gather the strength to face the struggle of existence on this planet it also helps the donor to save some extra cash on his personal tax return statements through his generous efforts.

Health, education, food, shelter, safety, and freedom of speech are the vital pillars of our society. These are the rights of the people belonging to any democratic state. However, the reality that we witness today is painful and tragic. The rich and wealthy population is enjoying treatments and medications because they have the ability to pay for all these services while the poor and marginalized people are deprived of basic healthcare and other medical facilities due to their inability to pay for the catastrophic medical bills and costly medicines beyond their financial range.

Zakat is the religious form of almsgiving in Islam treated as an obligatory act and by Quranic ranking, it comes next after the prayer (Salat) in importance. To become a righteous Muslim one is obliged to pay Zakat and fulfill one’s duties to the unprivileged people of the society.

Roksana, a 34-year-old single mother needs a hysterectomy. Roksana has uterine prolapse, a condition that occurs when the muscles and ligaments supporting the uterus weaken, causing severe pain, and bleeding and urine leakage. Roksana went to a private hospital but the doctors refused to operate her until she could pay for all her hospital bills and surgery costs. Roksana was in a pathetic situation. The doctors had denied treating her at such a crucial time when she badly needed medical attention.

Business is a part of the society and the time is gone when business houses could separate them from the rest of the community. The business houses and corporations affect the survival of many people, their surroundings, natural resources and the environment often by implementing their aggressive and profitable business strategies.

Generally people from the lower and lower middle class face the most tremendous emotional blow whenever a medical emergency occurs in the family. This causes severe financial stress which is further burdened by expensive hospitalization bills and medicine costs especially in the case of cancer, heart ailments, cochlear implants, kidney disorders and other such life-threatening illnesses.

Corporate Social Responsibility is about building and implementing strategies which involves our planet, its people, and business profits together to achieve sustainable growth. It is not that without CSR a company cannot exist but it is just that with well strategized and well-implemented CSR program a company can flourish.

Charitable trusts are working sincerely to resolve the most complicated issues of our society and are forbidden to join any commercial activities. Charitable trusts are allowed to generate profits on their particular trading, products or services but are bound to spend these profits in charitable projects for the recipients. Charitable Trusts are non profitable organizations so they cannot distribute any profit among their trust members.

Welfare organizations work for the wellbeing of people. These organizations work to ensure secured, happy, and healthy and safe living for all in the society. Every circumstance in life can affect an individual’s wellbeing, including factors like access to nutritious food, education, employment, medical facilities and secure housing.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to the moral and ethical efforts made by a company for the betterment of the society in some way. Now a company can contribute in numerous ways to improve the society ranging from donating money to nonprofits or charitable organizations or implementing environmentally friendly policies in the workplace.