topic Re: donated salary deduction in Self employed

donated salary deduction

ricardowilson — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 07:02:51 GMT

Hello,

In addition to my full-time job I am the executive director of a nonprofit (501c3/public charity). I will be donating my salary in 2023 and was wondering how I would claim it? Do I get a deduction for the entire amount or is it reduced by the percentage traditionally used for in-kind donations?

Thank you!

Re: donated salary deduction

Art EA — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 20:49:59 GMT

The charity will pay you and you make a cash donation to the charity. You must have earnings and you can deduct what you donate to the charity.

Re: donated salary deduction

BeckyLeeH — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 21:15:40 GMT

My colleague @Art EA gave a great answer. You may find this additional input helpful as well.
If you are being paid by the non-profit, you can donate your cash wages.
However, if you are donating your time with no pay, you cannot claim a donation .

I worked with non-profits for many years. We always appreciate volunteers!
Thanks for donating your time and expertise to this organization.

In Kind donations are volunteer hours that can be used to match public grant or private cash income from these sources.

If you keep track of your volunteer hours (non paid), you can use these as in kind resources to obtain additional funding resources.

For example, some grants require 50% match to obtain the grant funds.

You can show your match as in-kind.

# hours multiplied by appropriate hourly wage rate equals the total in-kind $ match.

For example, a school or public library reading program usually has volunteers who read books to the children. They have each volunteer sign in and out when they start/stop their volunteer reading shift.

The non profit calculates the cost they would have had to pay to employees for these hours.

The non-profit uses the volunteer hours as "in-kind" donations.

The non-profit can then obtain cash for the cost of books, supplies, etc used in the reading program

Hope this helps!
Good Luck with your non-profit programs

Re: donated salary deduction

ricardowilson — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 00:31:02 GMT

If I'm able to do as you say (accept payment and then donate that payment), does the 50 or 60% limit cut that donation by 50 or 60%, or am I aloud to count it as a dollar for dollar deduction as long as I don't exceed 50 or 60% of my AGI? I'm trying to see what makes the most sense regarding itemizing/standard deduction. Thanks a ton for your help!