# Charitable Donation Tax Credit



## bf230054 (Apr 4, 2009)

I was wondering what is maximum amount you can give to a charity/organization in order to claim a tax credit because I don't want to go over the limit and not be able to claim them for next years taxes. Also, what are some organizations I can give to? I only know of Church and Political party's, any other? I was just interested since I'm only 18yrs old and would like to increase my tax credit for next year.


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## FrugalTrader (Oct 13, 2008)

bf230054 said:


> I was wondering what is maximum amount you can give to a charity/organization in order to claim a tax credit because I don't want to go over the limit and not be able to claim them for next years taxes. Also, what are some organizations I can give to? I only know of Church and Political party's, any other? I was just interested since I'm only 18yrs old and would like to increase my tax credit for next year.


I believe you can give up to 75% of your net income to charity and still obtain the tax credit.

Here's a good site with a list of Canadian Charities: http://www.canadahelps.org/

Here is more information on the donation tax credit.


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## lb71 (Apr 3, 2009)

You can also carry forward your charitable contributions for five years. It is sometimes better to claim five years worth at once, since the first $200 or $250 receive a lower credit than the balance.


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## stardancer (Apr 26, 2009)

Just make sure that you donate to a registered charity. There are many fraudulent organizations out there. If you have any doubts about a charity, check on the CRA website:

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/chrts/dnrs/lstngs/menu-eng.html

Also if you receive something in return for your donation (like tickets, dinner, etc) it doesn't count as a donation


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## Robillard (Apr 11, 2009)

lb71 is right. In most, if not all provinces, the first $200 of charitable donations are credited at the lowest marginal rate, and anything above $200 is credited at the top marginal rate. I live in BC, so that means that the fist $200 I claim is credited at 20.06%, and anything above that is credited at 43.7%. So you can see, it makes sense to claim a pile of charitable donations all at once.

Political party donations work differently. For federal party donations, the federal tax credit is 75% on the first $400, 50% on the next $350, and 33% on the next $525. There is no tax credit above $1275 in a year. Provincial political party donations may follow a similar graduated system. I don't know if political donations can be carried forward.


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## Sustainable PF (Nov 5, 2010)

are these formulas still the same as presented by FT in his 2007 post on MDG?

taxtips.ca is confusing me a bit. 

we want to donate more this year, a lot more, but we'd also like to take advantage of the tax benefits best we can


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## Sustainable PF (Nov 5, 2010)

Sustainable PF said:


> are these formulas still the same as presented by FT in his 2007 post on MDG?
> 
> taxtips.ca is confusing me a bit.
> 
> we want to donate more this year, a lot more, but we'd also like to take advantage of the tax benefits best we can


can anyone answer this for me, please - looking at donating $900 but have to make sure Mrs. SPF understands how our refund will be impacted


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## plen (Nov 18, 2010)

Sustainable PF said:


> can anyone answer this for me, please - looking at donating $900 but have to make sure Mrs. SPF understands how our refund will be impacted


Based on the following three pages, for 2010 here's the calculation in Ontario:

http://www.taxtips.ca/filing/donationstaxcredit.htm
http://www.taxtips.ca/taxrates/on.htm
http://www.taxtips.ca/taxrates/canada.htm

$900 donation would be
15% Federal + 5.05% ONT = 20.05% on the first $200 = $40.10
29% Federal + 11.16% ONT = 40.16% on the other $700 = $281.12

Total: $40.10 + $281.12 = $321.22

The best way to maximize donations is for one spouse to claim it all. Since you can carry over for up to 5 years, you can maximize your credit by amassing the largest you can over 5 years so the most of it is calculated from the higher tax category. But of course more money now means more investing opportunity now.


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## Sustainable PF (Nov 5, 2010)

plen said:


> Based on the following three pages, for 2010 here's the calculation in Ontario:
> 
> http://www.taxtips.ca/filing/donationstaxcredit.htm
> http://www.taxtips.ca/taxrates/on.htm
> ...


thanks a ton plen


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