Considerations

• The IRS allows U.S. taxpayers to list all of their donations or take a standard deduction, but they cannot take both a standard deduction and itemized deductions in the same tax year. Depending on their income and the amount of other deductions, such as mortgage interest, unreimbursed employee and miscellaneous expenses, U.S. donors may benefit more by taking a standard deduction of $5,800 if single or married filing separately, $8,500 if head of household or $11,600 if married filing jointly, as of the 2011 tax year, according to Oblivious Investor.
  
  

Eligibility

• To itemize their tithes, donors must make contributions to a qualifying religious organization that has nonprofit status. Nonprofit charitable organizations described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code include most churches, synagogues, temples and mosques in the United States. Donors who tithe to an unregistered organization such as a home church cannot take an itemized deduction for their religious contributions.
  
  

Records

• Donors who tithe to their religious organization must keep records of their donations to itemize them on their federal tax return, or they will have to pay civil penalties in the event of an IRS audit. For every cash donation, regardless of value, they must obtain a receipt from their religious organization that includes the signed signature of a representative, the amount of the donation and the date and name of the religious organization. A bank record or credit card statement will also suffice as proof of donation.
  
  

Filing

• Taxpayers who tithe to their church can take a 100 percent deduction for tithes donated by attaching Schedule A to their IRS Form 1040 tax return. They will have to list their total tithes donated in a tax year on line 16. After taxpayers include their other itemized deductions and fill out Schedule A down to line 29, they will enter their total allowable deductions on line 40 of Form 1040.