In the past we usually just went to the tithing settlement and used that paperwork to itemized our deductions, but this year, with my leaving the church, will I have to request a copy of the settlement to be sent to me or will they do so automatically - does anyone know?

You will probably want to contact the ward clerk and ask for a copy. They may mail you one in January.

Note:

Since stopping paying tithing last year this will be my first year of not itemizing deductions. Another blessing of being out of the church - easier taxes!

I resigned a few weeks ago and I'm moving, so they won't know where to mail a copy of my settlement. (There's no way in hell I'm giving them my address.) Oh well, I just won't count tithing as a deduction this year. It's worth it to preserve my freedom and peace of mind.

If you kept a record of your tribute, uh, protection money, uh, "donations", you don't need TSCC's record, usually. Unless you paid a lot like Willard does.

Set up a PO Box just for them to mail your statement.

Fortunately, (or not) my wife still attends and pays her own tithing, so she'll get a tithing settlement.

The years worth of tithing you put into savings will be worth much more than the deduction you get from putting it toward intangible benefits.

When we paid out 4k+ to the church, we got about 600 bucks worth of tax deduction benefit.

When we put 4k+ into a savings account, we got no tax benefit, but we had 4k in the bank. Even if it meant paying, we'd still have 3k left in savings that we wouldn't have if we paid tithing.

With the standard deduction we were getting even less tax benefit than that.

My wife pays about $600 tithing on her personal income - thanks to the standard deduction we will get zero tax benefit on it.

As an accountant I agree, but that really wasn't the point. The point is I paid money to a recognized charitable (yeah right) organization and due to other deducitble expenses putting us beyond the standard I am going to maximize my allowed deductions any way I can (legally of course).

Plus, in a state like mine (MN) even individuals who don't go beyond the standard deduction still can itemize their charitable contributions on their State tax return.

Half of any tax refund my wife and I receive we put away in to our children's college fund and while the extra amount we gain on a refund due to the tithe we paid won't be a huge amount, it is still an extra amount of money that we could get back and put toward helping our children out in the future. Plus, I don't quite understand why a person wouldn't try to get the maximum refund they are allowed each year, but to each their own.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2012 02:41PM by jah.

Oh we definitely try to maximize our refund by using any deduction that we can.

But since we left LDS,Inc. we have put most of our tithing money into Savings and we can give more to the local soup kitchens.

We don't get as big of a refund due to losing that deduction, but refund or owe, we still have a lot more money at the end of the year than we could hope to get back in a refund.

When we were full tithepayers we could not afford a savings account. So every year we would put half of our tax returns into savings.

JoD3:360 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Oh we definitely try to maximize our refund by
> using any deduction that we can.
>
> But since we left LDS,Inc. we have put most of our
> tithing money into Savings and we can give more to
> the local soup kitchens.
>
> We don't get as big of a refund due to losing that
> deduction, but refund or owe, we still have a lot
> more money at the end of the year than we could
> hope to get back in a refund.
>
> When we were full tithepayers we could not afford
> a savings account. So every year we would put half
> of our tax returns into savings.

Yeah, I have a lot of clients who like to say that their maximization of their withholding is nice in that they use it as a "savings plan". I can't understand that mentality. I try to explain that you're just loaning the government money at no interest doing that. I try to explain how withholding properly and putting the difference away in a savings account (even at the crappy current 0.25% standard interest rate) is a much better investment than doing it via withholding more and safer in that you have the money accessible to fall back on if needed throughout the year rather than once a year, but that advice 95% of the time falls on deaf ears.

WHY does any sane person even go to tithing settlement????

That very act acknowledges that you might owe the morg anything.

Stop going and refuse to participate in such a degrading practise !
If they try to summon you, either ignore them or tell them to bugger off.

Did you read the question at all?

Jah clearly states (s)he will not be attending tithing settlement and is wondering how to get the end of year statement when not attending.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2012 02:35PM by bc.

Cancelled checks are perfectly acceptable as documentation of donations. You don't need their report.

This happened to my husband and I last year.


We paid tithing for over half the year, then finally had enough and quit going to church altogether. We have not been back since, not even for tithing settlement in December.


I didn't worry about it, because I kept my own records and knew I could get copies of cancelled checks if I were ever audited.


But low and behold, come January tax season time, TSCC mailed me the form that they would have given me in tithing settlement.


So -- even though I did NOT go through the tithing shakedown ritual in December -- TSCC sent me the official year end donation statement anyhow.

They send it to you in the mail if they don't see you at church or tithing settlement. You could call the ward clerk and ask him to send to you just in case to make sure it gets done. I think I still went to tithing settlement last year because I paid up until the end of November and attended through the end of the year. I am glad I didn't pay a cent to them this year.