My college alumni association sent an email saying that 80% of our dues are tax deductible, how would I go about filing for this?

[ciaraski11]

I am currently a dependent of my parents while upholding a part-time job.

[Anita01 · Accepted solution]

It probably won't help you to enter anything for this.  The portion of alumni dues that is tax deductible would be a charitable contribution.  Charitable contributions are only one part of your itemized deductions.  You have to have enough itemized deductions to exceed your standard deduction before it benefits you at all.  Even then, your itemized deductions can only be used to lower the tax you owe.  AS a  dependent with only a part-time job, you are probably already getting a refund of all the tax you had withheld, and you can't get anymore then that.

You can always give it a try if you want.  Look at the tax withheld for federal income tax in Box 2 of your W-2.  After you enter your W-2, see how much refund you''re receiving.   If your refund matches your tax withheld, don't bother with itemized deductions, because you can't get more back.

Even if you are not getting everything back, your itemized  deductions in total would have to exceed $6350 to be larger than your standard.  Anything less than that won't increase your refund.