[fnurt]

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dear irs,

according to your calculations, i owe you $4,283 dollars. However, I donated $4,283 dollars to charity so I actually owe you nothing. Thanks!

rj

yeah. that wouldnt work...

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I'm pretty sure that you can (bold is from LegalZoom.com):

You may deduct a maximum of up to 50% of your adjusted gross income (AGI) (Line 36 on IRS Form 1040) for the tax year the donation was given.

Poker earnings = part of gross income
deduction = 0.5*AGI (if you give that much, which he won't have to in order to satifsfy his agreement with Jesus).

he would've had to rend unto caesar anyway, so he loses nothing, DUCY?

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You have it way wrong, although I think everyone else already gets this. You don't have to pay tax on money you give to charity, which is nice, but it's not like you get to take the money you were going to send to the IRS and give it to charity instead. That's not how it works.

Let's say I earn $100,000 a year. Tax is around 30%, so I end up with $70,000 for my wife to spend.

Now, let's say I earn $100,000 a year, and give $10,000 to charity. I get to deduct that amount from my INCOME (not my tax bill), so now my income is only $90,000. The 30% tax bill comes to $27,000, meaning I get to take home $63,000.

So I gave $10,000 to charity, but only $7,000 actually came out of my pocket. That's a nice benefit, but it's obviously not true that the donation cost me nothing. I'm still out $7,000.