Deadline for Haiti Donations for 2009 Tax Deductions is Feb. 28

You have until midnight on Sunday, Feb. 28 to make charitable donations to the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, if you want to take the tax deduction for 2009.

Typically, if you file an itemized individual federal return and you want to deduct your charitable contributions, you can only deduct the contributions you made in that tax year. The earthquake hit Haiti on January 12, 2010. Under the normal rules, charitable contributions made to help Haiti would be deductible when taxpayers file their 2010 returns in 2011. However, due to special legislation signed into law by President Obama in January, there is a special and temporary exception for Haiti relief.

Under the new law, you can treat a contribution made to help Haiti after January 11, 2010 and before March 1, 2010 as if made on December 31, 2009. You can decide whether to deduct your 2010 Haiti contribution on your 2009 return or on your 2010 return. While you cannot deduct the same Haiti contribution on both your 2009 and 2010 returns, you can allocate multiple donations to more than one year.

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