Can I carry over charity contributions/interest deductions to next year’s tax return?

Can I carry over charity donations/interest deductions to next year’s tax return?

The question

I know I shouldn’t really be asking tax advice on yahoo answers, but I will give it a shot.

I am a current Apprentice student, and have made about $ 5,000 in income this year, and I am also married (with a tax credit of about $ 11,700 because of that). Thus I will be filing self-determining of my parents because of my marriage. I will have no tax liability.

But I have made about $ 500+ in charitable donations in 2011, can I carry this over for next year’s tax return (ie. 2012)? I will be making over $ 30,000 next year and want to be able to claim the charitable donations on that because that will really help reduce my tax. Is this possible?

Also I made student loan payments, and have paid back $ 1,700 in interest to the government on my loan, and so I received a 1098-E which I can use to deduct my taxes. Again this is no benefit to me this year, can I claim this next year?

Please let me know, thanks!

Best answers:

no
in your case you cannot use Sch A, and itemize greater than your standard deduction so your charitable donations do nothing to adjust your taxable income
you only carryforward charitable donations if your donations exceed the 50% of your AGI that you are allowed to claim—$ 500 doesn’t cut it

No, you cannot. Charitable donations are deductible in the year that they are made. The ONLY exception to that rule is if your total charitable donations are more than 50% of your AGI (in most cases, for a few types of donations the percentage is less) then you carry the excess over to the following year.

The student loan interest is also claimed in the year that it’s paid. Period. The limit is $ 2,500 per year (or $ 2,500 each on a joint return) and anything beyond that is lost.

Not sure where you get the thought that you get an $ 11,700 tax credit for being married; there is no such credit.

Nope. Those things are only deductible in the year you paid them or donated them. If you do not itemize (you don’t), the donations are not deductible anyway.

Interest, no. And donations, only if you hit the limit for deduction in one year, not the case in your situation. Since you can’t use them for 2011, you just don’t get any tax benefit from them. They’re only excellent for the year they’re incurred.

The $ 11,700 for being married is a standard deduction, not a credit.

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