Thoughts on this IRS benefit??? to employees -- is it --Not?

[easytax]

The IRS has issued (as seen below as a "nicety" (which is nice) but in reality seems to leave out a real benefit to some taxpayers. Yes, it is excellent to help someone and donate, etc. -- that is not what I am asking.  Although the intent is good, would it not be better to take the "time" or be paid for it and DONATE the dollars? Maybe it is me but being cynical I wanted to ask other opinions.

In a normal manner a person earns time off (whether sick, vacation, special, whatever) and when they use it they are paid and the employer gets the write-off and the person is taxed, etc.. If any money is donated the employee CAN itemize depending on circumstances and there is somewhat of an offset to the income. So the employee gets the "time off" benefit AND maybe a  partial offset of the extra money.

In the below circumstances the employer still gets the write-off, the employee does NOT have the "extra" income included -- BUT -- seems to actually lose -- as the employee naturally does not get any offset (no extra income to offset) BUT also does NOT have the "time" off either. Everyone benefits but is seems the employee actually loses something here????

IRS Provides Special Relief to Encourage Leave-Based Donation Programs for Victims of Hurricane and Tropical Storm Irma

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service today announced special relief designed to support leave-based donation programs to aid victims of Hurricane and Tropical Storm Irma. This parallels relief granted to Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey victims.

Under these programs, employees may forgo their vacation, sick or personal leave in exchange for cash payments the employer makes, before Jan. 1, 2019, to charitable organizations providing relief for the victims of this disaster.

Under this special relief, the donated leave will not be included in the income or wages of the employees. Employers will be permitted to deduct the cash payments as business expenses.

This relief is similar to that provided following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014, and last year following Hurricane Matthew and severe flooding in Louisiana. Details of this relief are in Notice 2017-52, posted today on IRS.gov.

Information on other tax relief available to victims of Hurricane Irma can be found at www.irs.gov/hurricaneirma. For information on government-wide relief efforts, visit www.USA.gov/hurricane-irma

[Lion EA]

It could be very helpful for those not able to itemize charitable contributions.

It gets the full wage amount to charities without an employee getting a lesser amount after taxes and then donating that lesser amount.

The employee chooses this if he wants to give (lose something, in your words) as a way to give more than his after-tax wages.

[BulldogTom]

Exclusions of income are generally better than deductions from income because the AGI is lowered (think ACA PTC, Education Credits, etc) and the Payroll Tax is not withheld.  

Just like everything in tax, it all depends.   This is more akin to giving your RMD to charity and getting an exclusion from the income rather than taking the RMD and giving it to charity and taking a Sch. A deduction.   For some it works better.

This is not a loser to the employee, especially for moderately high income taxpayers or people without enough deductions to itemize who want to be generous in this situation.

Tom
Modesto, CA

[easytax]

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GREAT points.   THANKS -- it helps my mind too.

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[WITAXLADY]

but why just the 2 hurricanes - why not for other tragedies or cancer victims... great idea - too narrow