Hey OSP, I've been asked by several organizations that claim to be penniless to shoot events for them for free then they tell me how they're going to get me all this business by mentioning my name. Yeah, that never works. BUT! For those of us that do want to donate time to NP's and still be able to write it off, I stumbled across this guys blog from strobist, originally watching his video on remotely triggering a camera. But I found this tax work around for writing a shoot of. Here's the link: Non-Profit Tax Invoicing tips

Invoicing and the turning around and donating the money back doesn't help reduce your tax liability.

You invoice for $1,000, so you increase your income by $1,000.

You donate the $1,000 back to the non-profit, so that reduces your tax liability, but not by more than the $1,000 you increased your tax liability by being paid for the service.

It is a wash.

So what's the point?

Just a lot of extra paperwork.

That makes no sense.

He says in the comments that it'll help raise your gross income to prove that you're not a hobby so that you can now write off expenses. So... MAYBE if you have years of losses this MIGHT help???

Otherwise the only thing you can write off for charitable work is direct expenses like mileage.

This is the first year that I have done charitable work in photography, and I'm not sure if it will work yet, but one organization that I worked with wrote a tax letter for me stating that I donated $1000 worth of time/work to their efforts. It is worth a shot! I'll let you know how it pans out.

Its not a wash -

Since your tax rate is usually only around 20-30%, the write-off is much larger than what you pay.

Except that a donation reduces your taxable income, NOT the tax that you owe (it's a deduction, not a tax credit). So you add $1,000 to your taxable income with the invoice, and then reduce it by $1,000 with the donation. In the end, what you pay the government in taxes hasn't changed unless by donating you have moved yourself into a lower tax bracket.


Technically, you can't write off "business" expenses if you're only conducting a hobby. And business expenses can only offset business income, so you need business income in order to take advantage of the deductions. There are lots of rules about how this is done, and certain exceptions, but it does make sense in that contaxt. I'm not 100% sure it makes sense if you're turning around and donating money, but if you're needing to prove that you're a legit business, it could probably help (maybe? who knows - the IRS does its own thing sometimes )

Yes, but the $1,000 reduction comes off the tax you owe, as a deduction, not off your yearly gross.

Actually, no. That's what I'm saying. A deduction reduces your gross income, NOT your tax liability. Donations are deductions.