Hi!

I've gotten quite a few notes about this, so please let me clarify.  I
wrote that BEFORE I sat down to muck with those *$&*$&% tax forms.  :-)
Yes, as Art Harris pointed out, our time is worthless when we volunteer
it.  Turns out that even though our mileage was 50 mi/week for the
museum, and with other little deductions like the birth of our son, huge
medical bills for that, AND we didn't change our withholding...it didn't
make it worth it to itemize, so we just took the standard deduction and
we STILL owe.  I told Tim (my husband) we need to get divorced and live
in sin since it would be better for us at tax time.  :-(  Still waiting
for that little bit of legislation that would allow a $1,000 deduction
for interest paid on student loans!!!!

Btw, I bought Kiplinger's TaxCut software this year, and it saved us
about $120.  It's easy to use, and I thought it was worth the investment
if anyone's looking for this type of thing.

Sorry to be totally off the subject!

Amy.

        ----------
        From:  Robert T. Handy[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
        Sent:  Wednesday, April 01, 1998 12:12 PM
        To:  [log in to unmask]
        Subject:  Re: Volunteers and Security

        Marshall, Amy, K. wrote:
        >
          Apparently, we can
        > take a mileage deduction and a time deduction.

        Woops!  Be very careful here.  Yes, you can take out-of-pocket
expense
        deductions when you volunteer to help certain tax exempt
organizations.
        But you cannot take a deduction for the "time" you contributed.
That
        would not stand up under an audit.
        --
        Bob Handy, Director
        Brazoria County Historical Museum
        100 East Cedar
        Angleton, Texas 77515
        (409) 864-1208
        (409) 864-1217 (Fax)
        http://www.bchm.org