Donate vacation/sick time for Katrina relief

If you  have extra vacation, sick or personal days from work that you don't use, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has provided a way that you can help victims of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Instead of letting these days go to waste, you can donate them to help victims from the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

The Department of the Treasury and IRS have set up a special program (Under Notice 2005-68) which was initiated to encourage employees to donate their unused sick or vacation days to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. Under this special program, employees can donate their vacation, sick or personal leave days back to their company. Their employer then takes the value of the time donated and makes a cash donation to a charity helping out in the relief effort.

To meet the program's requirements, the cash donation must be made to a qualified tax-exempt organizations providing relief for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The employer must also make the cash donation payment before January 1, 2007. In return, the employees do not have to count the donated leave as part of their income and employers are allowed to deduct the amount of the cash payment from their taxes.

If you know that you will not be using all the vacation and/or sick days that you are entitled to take, contact the personnel office of your company to see if you can arrange to donate your unused days to help those struggling to recover. It's an easy way to make a difference with a minimal amount of effort on your part, especially if you usually do not use all of your allotted days each year.




The World Unleashed allworldviews.blogspot.com