It’s Giving Tuesday, so here’s a special reminder about this year’s “bonus” charitable deduction. As part of the CARES Act, Congress authorized a special charitable deduction for 2020 for people who aren’t able to itemize due to the standard deduction being higher than their itemized deductions. The limit is $300, and that’s the case whether your Single, Head-Of-Household, or Married Filing Jointly. To qualify, the donation must be in cash, it must be to a qualifying organization (which is the same as for charitable donations as itemized deductions), it must be made in 2020, and appropriate records must be kept. As with itemized deductions, you can check whether the organization qualifies using the IRS’s Tax Exempt Organization Search. A $300 deduction may not sound like a lot, but many people have already made, or are about to make, some cash contributions for friends, colleagues, or family members that are raising money for various organizations. If you’re going to make the contribution regardless of the tax benefit, you might as well take the tax benefits that are available. In most cases, substantiation simply requires an acknowledgement from the organization (including stating that you received no benefits for your donation) and a cancelled check or credit card statement. (For detailed record keeping requirements and special cases, see Charitable Contributions – Deductions & Recordkeeping in the blog archives.) So save those “thanks for your contribution” acknowledgement emails and keep a running list of your cash donations this year, whether you itemize or not. They will come in handy to the tune of up to $300 in deductions at tax prep time.