I just got a $175 cell phone bill. It would have been $75 if my wife hadn't used it extensively as part of her volunteer work as VP of a charity. Can the $100 be deducted? How exactly? I have read her the riot act; there is simply no reason for a 45 minute cell phone when the land line is available. Hopefully there will be no more $175 bills.
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It goes on Schedule A on the first line for contributions, just as if you gave cash. With that amount of expense in a single month, watch out for the acknowledgement substantiation requirement of IRC Section 170(f)(8). The Tax Court in 2003 extended this to "out of pocket" expenditures for the benefit of a charitable organization and did NOT treat them as separate but aggregrated the entire year's spread together in determining the $250.00 threshold that triggers the acknowledgement.
It would be a deductible out of pocket cost. I would question though your plan where a 45 minute call costs you $100.
-- David M. Woods, EA, ChFC, CLU Woods Financial Services Norwood, MA 02062
No, the 45 minute call only cost $20. It was the other 50 5 minute calls that did it. I can kinda see why she would not want to tell someone calling her that she will call him back on a land line for a 5 minute call; but for a 45 minute call?! That's all.
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