Hi. I have a home secretarial business. For the past few years, I have donated my services to my church. I issue them a billing statement of the amount of services I have donated, and they issue me the end of year statement to use on my federal tax form. Recently, I heard that I will not be able to use services donated to the church as a tax deduction in 2015. Is this true?

The IRS will not allow you to deduct the monetary value of your volunteer time/ services to the church, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status,

on your tax returns. But you may be able to deduct for certain volunteer expenses; however, some out-of- your pocket expenses may be deducted on your returns. Aslongas these expenses must
not have been reimbursed by the charity; be directly tied to the volunteer services provided to the churc; have been incurred only because of the services you donated ; not have been you’re your personal, living, or family expenses. For instance, you can deduct the cost of getting to and from the place you volunteer using your vehicle. If you do not want to figure the exact cost of gas and oil used, you can calculate your deduction using the rate of 14 cents per mile driven in services for the church;