Museums like the Buffalo Nations Museum rely on support from donors like you to stay afloat, because in many cases government grants are either not available or are inadequate to cover operating costs. If you've been looking around your community and thinking that since you're doing so well, you should share the wealth with a charity, consider donating to a museum like this one. You will even be able to deduct it from your taxes. This article will help you understand how this process works.

Registered charities do not owe taxes on their earnings provided that these earnings do not go toward lining the pockets of board members but are instead put toward developing more programs or handing out supplies to new mothers with limited incomes. Because charities rely on donations, donors cannot be discouraged from contributing by factors like having to pay sales tax on the money they give to charities. So the government allows charities to forgo tax and donors to claim their donation against their taxes.

What this means is that if you donate $10 to a charity, you don't have to pay taxes on $10 of your regular income. This may not seem like much, but when you add up all the donations you make to various charities in the run of a year, it can be significant enough to allow taxpayers to make an extra payment on their home with the tax refund cheque they receive. Therefore it's in your best interest not only to donate to charities but also to hang onto your receipts and factor them into your tax calculations.

In order to claim your deduction, you will need a receipt from the charity. Only charities that are registered are allowed to issue these receipts, so check out the charity you're considering before you donate. Charities will generally only issue receipts for donations of $10 or more. If you donate a dollar or two for a paper design to sing at the checkout of your favorite store or put your pocket change in a collection can, you will not get a receipt and it would be bad form to ask for one when your donation is so small.

Many charities only issue tax receipts for monetary donations, but if you're donating a physical item you can sometimes get a tax receipt for that as well. Bringing your spare household items to a charity shop won't net you a receipt because the items don't have much value. But if you're donating a valuable item such as bedroom art, an heirloom, or a historical artifact to an organization like a museum, you can be issued a tax receipt for the value of the item.