Need wallet.org says “In general, you can deduct up to 60% of your adjusted gross income via charitable donations, but you may be limited to 20%, 30% or 50% depending on the type of contribution and the organization.” but I don’t know what those words mean 😆
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As other’s have said, the basic deal is that if you donate $1 to a charity, the government agrees to deduct $1 from your tax bill at the end of the year. It’s not like you’re get free money out of the deal, it’s more like you never earned the money to begin with.
A dumb example would be I earn $10 and the Government takes $2 out of my paycheck for taxes, so I have $8 left. I then give that $8 to a charity and at the end of year the Government says, “oh you donated that? Here’s your $2 back.” So again, not free money, it’s just not hurting me.
Now, depending on the type of charity you are donating to, there are maximum amounts in this offer. It gets complicated but not all charities are equal in this deal. Something like the Red Cross? You’re allowed 60% of your income. Something like a Police or Veteran society? I think that’s a 30% cap of your income. The specific 20-30-50-60 is complicated and not something “obvious” you’d need to look up the charity’s “type” from their paperwork and then find that type in a list. Obviously almost nobody comes to donating this much to a charity, but still, thems the rules and I don’t make ’em.
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