 So in figuring whether a gift is $250 or more, don't combine separate donations. For example, if you gave your church $25 each week for a total of $1,300 treat each $25 payment as a separate gift. So now we're thinking about that $250 limit. If you gave separate donations that add up more than $250, that's different than the one time $250 donation, in other words. So if you made donations through payroll deductions, treat each deduction from each paycheck as a separate gift. See publication 526 if you made a separate gift of $250 or more through payroll deduction. Use deduction, puzzle solving, little bit of. To be contemporaneous, you must get the written acknowledgement from the charitable organization by the date you file your return or the due date, including extensions for filing your return, whichever is earlier. Don't attach the contemporaneous written acknowledgement to your return, instead keep it for your records. So in other words, you have to have all this kind of stuff but so that you can verify in the event of an audit. Remember the normal process that the IRS used to kind of take was their normal regulation process is similar to say a cop, a police officer trying to regulate someone driving on the freeway. If you speed, you might get away with it 10 times, nine times out of 10, but that 10th time, they're gonna hit you with a ticket that's probably high enough that it's gonna change your behavior the rest of the nine times. That's the general concept. Now more and more, the IRS is trying to be intrusive and basically try to see every transaction that you have. So they already have all the information for your W-2s, your 1099s and all that kind of stuff. So that's a different kind of method. But the general method that they used to kind of have would have random audits and they would audit you and then if you had a problem, then they hit you with penalties and interest. So that's kind of what they're doing here still with the charitable contributions. You're not gonna try to give them evidence of every charitable contribution. In the future, I would not be surprised if they require charitable contributions to electronically give that information to the government, to the IRS or something like that, but we're not there yet. And so if they audited you, then you would have to have the information to support within the audit. So limit on the amount you can deduct. See publication 526 to figure the amount of your deduction if any of the following applies. One, your cash contributions or contributions of ordinary income property are more than 30% of the amount on form 1040 or 1040 SR line 11. Two, your gifts of capital gain property are more than 20% of the amount on form 1040 or 1040 SR line 11. Three, you gave gifts of property that increased in value or gave gifts of the use of property. Amounts you can't deduct. Certain contributions to charitable organizations to the extent that you receive a state or local tax credit in return for your contribution. So you can see publication 526 for more details and exceptions there. You've got an amount paid to or for the benefit of a college or university in exchange for the right to purchase tickets to an athletic event in the college or university stadium. Obviously there's an exchange going on here and this is the kind of thing that happens when you've got these weird rules with the tax code that are a little bit, that are trying to incentivize things different than just you get to deduct something if it was used to help to generate revenue. People start coming up with weird kind of concepts. You know it was a charitable contribution to buy the tickets to the football game. It's like, well, no, I don't think. Travel expenses, including meals and lodging, while away from home performing donated services unless there was no significant element of personal pleasure, recreation, or vacation in the travel. So you gotta make sure you had a horrible time in the traveling, otherwise you can't deduct it. Did you have any fun? No pictures. If I see any pictures on Facebook or any of the social medias, then no deduction. You gotta be looking sad and stern. Any case, political contributions. Can't do the political contributions because again, that gives influence of wealthy people, most likely buying favors, right? We don't want that. Do's, fees, or bills paid to country clubs, lodges for turtle orders, or similar groups. So if you're paying dues for the groups to a country club, then you're probably paying to be a member of the country club where you're getting goods and services and whatnot and doesn't sound like charity. Cost of raffle, bingo, or lottery tickets. But you may be able to deduct these expenses on line 16, see line 16 later for more information on gambling losses, value of your time, or services.