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Level 3
February 21, 2019
Question

Separate Charitable Deductions

  • February 21, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 4 views

My partner are not married but we share all household expenses and the mortgage and property deeds are in our joint names.   We file separately.  We contribute to separate charities. Can one of us allocate the charitable contributions they paid to the itemized deductions of the other, even though the partner that finishes up with those did not directly pay for them (albeit since we share all expenses so  there was an "implicit" sharing of those charitable contributions.   

    1 reply

    IsabellaG
    Level 13
    February 22, 2019

    No, the IRS will only allow you to deduct contributions that you paid from your own funds. It's actually the same case with married couples filing separate returns when the funds came from separate accounts. 

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    Level 15
    February 22, 2019

    and the obvious way to itemize similar charitable deductions in 2019, is to come up with a strategy to determine who is going to make all the contributions,.......so that it conforms to Isabella's advice