Giving Advertising

Legal Industry Focused Businesses

Law firms seeking new clients, surety bond companies, legal services companies, hr and employment companies and process servers are ideal advertisers for our blog.

LIT attracts substantial interest from the legal community as well as citizens looking for assistance, guidance for their own legal issues. LIT also has an active community of web users from all over the the United States and the world browsing the many articles focusing on judicial and legal misconduct.

This list is not exhaustive, just an idea of the type of corporate businesses who we believe would benefit from advertising on LIT.

PACS or Non-Profit Entities Focused on Civil Rights

If you’re a PAC or non-profit focused on driving new subscribers and/or donations for your entity, or you have a powerful civil rights message you wish to promote, LIT can drive you qualified traffic.

Politicians

If you haven’t got a caricature on LIT, you’ll most likely enjoy the benefits of advertising on LIT.

Distressed Homeowners and/or those Facing Debt Collection or Unlawful Garnishment Take Top Priority

You’re #1: We make homeowners facing wrongful foreclosure and other citizens facing unlawful debt collection and/or garnishment cases our top priority when it comes to LIT Advertising.

Guest Posts and Link Builders

As y’all will learn, we don’t accept guest posts and link builders as we deem that as prohibited advertising, but you are more than welcome to advertise on LIT.

Once we receive your advertising donation, we’ll write to you personally regarding approval of your advertising and setting up your LIT advert(s).

Who Qualifies for LIT’s Giving Advertising?

LIT accepts advertising from entities or people who are in our legal, civil rights, access to justice or investigative journalism niche.

Distressed Homeowners and/or those Facing Debt Collection or Unlawful Garnishment Take Top Priority

You’re #1: We make homeowners facing wrongful foreclosure and other citizens facing unlawful debt collection and/or garnishment cases our top priority when it comes to LIT Advertising.

Our focus is not only the banner advertising, but we are aggressive in helping you present your case to the public via our blog and marketing channels.

Many of you will not be confident about going to court pro se, or don’t have the time, but you are trying to attract the attention of lawyers who read our blog (although many won’t admit to that). Your Giving Advertising on LIT will reach the type of eyeballs you want to attract and will also be read by the lawyers who you are opposing and they won’t like the additional publicity, we know that for sure.

If you want an article published on LIT, contact us for more information.

Do We Accept Advertising from Law Firms or Lawyers?

Yes, if you’re on the right side of the courtroom.

Who Does Not Qualify?

LIT does not display advertising for products and services which are not related to LIT’s mission statement.

Why is LIT Advertising Restrictive?

Approved Giving Advertisers have an interest in our message. Their own advertising is relevant and compliments LIT’s blog and articles.

What does Rotating Banner Ads actually mean?

On LIT’s Giving Advertising page you will note there’s 3 banner adverts (350×300 px) displaying at any time. They ‘rotate’ on each page refresh or new user visiting the page, presenting new banner(s).

LawsInTexas.com is an online brand wholly owned by Blogger Inc, which is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and contributions are tax-deductible for income, gift, and estate taxes. Our EIN is 85-1940437.

“Guest Posts” or other prohibited (black hat SEO) advertising.

Blogger Inc’s Mission Statement

LawInTexas com is an online trading name which is wholly owned by Blogger Inc., a nonprofit 501(c)(3) registered in Delaware.  Blogger Inc’s mission to improve civil rights, access to justice, ethics, accountability and social change by reaching stakeholders and citizens via online media marketing and blogs.

Charitable Contributions

LIT has included the following article from Intuit TurboTax which provides a good snapshot of charitable contributions and what you may or may not deduct from your tax return filings. Please note LIT are not accountants or tax advisers and this information is provided purely for educational purposes only.

OVERVIEW

Learn how to get the biggest tax savings when making charitable contributions of cash or checks, household goods, cars or appreciated property.

Paper Saying Give Back

Choose the right organization

In order for your donation to be deductible, it must go to a nonprofit group that is approved by the IRS. Most often, these are charitable, religious or educational organizations, though they can also be everything from your local volunteer fire company to a group for the prevention of cruelty to animals.

If you’re not sure whether the group you want to help is approved by the IRS to receive tax-deductible donations, check online at IRS Exempt Organizations Select Check.

This site allows you to enter an organization’s name and location to instantly find out if it qualifies.

LawsInTexas.com (“LIT”) is an online trading name which is wholly owned by Blogger Inc, an approved 501(c)(3) nonprofit. You can confirm our nonprofit status with the IRS as stated above.

Make sure it counts

To write off any cash contributions, no matter how small, you need a canceled check, bank record or a receipt with the charity’s name and donation amount.

That means that putting cash in the church collection plate or the Salvation Army bucket is a no-no if you want to be able to take a deduction for it.

As with all deductions, timing is everything. You can take the deduction for your contribution in the year that you make it.

For example, if you mailed a check to your favorite charity on December 31, you can write it off on that year’s tax return.

If you charge the donation on a credit card, the write-off is claimed in the year the charge is made, even if you don’t pay the credit card bill until the following year.

But a pledge to make a donation is different

Because it’s only a promise to make a future donation, there’s no deduction until you actually follow through.

Donations are limited

There’s also a limit on how much you can deduct. The basic rule is that your contributions to qualified public charities, colleges and religious groups can’t exceed 60 percent of your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) (100% of AGI in 2020 for qualified charities).

The caps are a bit lower for gifts to other types of nonprofits. When it comes to gifts of appreciated property, the limit drops to 30 percent of AGI.

If these restrictions limit your write-off in the year of the gift, the excess deduction carries over to the next year.

Also, keep in mind that you can’t write off a contribution to the extent that you get something in return.

For example:

If you buy a $50 ticket to a fundraising dinner at a church, but the cost of the dinner is $20, you can deduct $30.

$50 donation – $20 return = $30 deduction

For donations of more than $75, the nonprofit must give you a written statement telling you the value of what you received in return and reminding you that you can’t deduct that portion of your contribution.

There’s also a special rule for folks who donate to colleges and universities and receive the right to buy tickets to school athletic events: They can deduct 80 percent of their donation.

Appreciated property

Cash may be king, but if you want a really big tax saver, your best bet may be a donation of appreciated property—securities, real estate, art, jewelry or antiques.

If you have owned the property more than a year, you can deduct its full fair market value and escape income tax on the appreciation.

For property held one year or less, IRS only allows you to claim a deduction on the price you paid for it.

Let’s say you own stock that you bought many years ago for $1,000 that is now worth $10,000, and that you intend to make a $10,000 gift to a major fundraiser for your alma mater. If you write a check for $10,000, the college gets $10,000, and you get to deduct $10,000.

If instead, you give the $10,000 worth of stock,

The college still gets $10,000 (it won’t owe any tax on the profit when it sells the stock.)
You still get to deduct $10,000.

You eliminate the tax you’d owe if you sold the stock for $10,000: Such a sale would trigger a capital gains tax on the $9,000 of profit, and that would cost you $1,350. Making your gift with stock instead of cash saves you that $1,350.

If you don’t really want to part with the stock because you think it’s still a good investment, give it away anyway. Then use your $10,000 of cash to buy the shares back in the open market. That way you’ll only be taxed on future appreciation.

How a gift is used affects donor value

If you’re donating tangible personal property, what the charity does with the item affects how much you can deduct.

If you donate land so the local homeless shelter can build a new facility to house more people, you can write off the full market value.

If you donate a work of art to the shelter for its fundraising auction, you only get a deduction for the price you paid for the artwork.

What if you donated the piece of art to a museum that will display it as part of its collection? In that case, you get to deduct the full market value.

For property worth more than $5,000 ($10,000 for stock in closely-held firms), you’ll need to get a formal appraisal. You’ll also have to make sure the appraiser is a member of a recognized professional group or meets minimum education and experience guidelines. If you don’t, the IRS can disallow your deduction.

Contributing household items

Donating used goods such as clothing, linens, electronics, appliances and furniture gets you a write-off for the item’s fair market value at the time you donated it, which may be considerably less than what you originally paid.

The IRS has a helpful booklet on this subject, Publication 561: Determining the Value of Donated Property.

For items valued at more than $500, you’ll need to fill out Form 8283 and attach it to your return. On this form you have to describe each item over $500 that you donated, identify the recipient, and provide information about the value of the item, including your cost or adjusted basis.

Congress has clamped down on donations of household goods to make sure folks aren’t inflating the value of their used stuff. No tax deduction is allowed unless an item is in good condition or better. If an item in less-than-good condition is valued at more than $500, you can take a deduction only if you get the item appraised and attach the appraisal to your return. Congress also gave the IRS broad authority to deny deductions for low-value items such as used socks and underwear.

Donating vehicles

If the claimed value of your donated vehicle is more than $500, in most cases your deduction is limited to the amount the car brings when it’s sold at auction.

The charity has 30 days after it sells your vehicle to issue you a Form 1098-C that shows the sale price. You must attach that form to your tax return or the IRS will disallow the deduction.

There are, however, some situations where you’re permitted to claim the car’s estimated market value:

If the charity significantly improves the vehicle, makes significant use of it, or gives the vehicle (or sells it at a discount) to a poor person who needs transportation.

For more information, check the IRS article: IRS Guidance Explains Rules for Vehicle Donations.

Volunteer services

Don’t overlook the volunteer work you perform, which may also generate a deduction. You can write off many out-of-pocket expenses you incur to do good work, such as costs for: materials,
supplies, uniforms, stationery, stamps, parking tolls.

You can also deduct the cost of driving to and from your volunteer work, at a rate of 14 cents per mile. If you take public transportation, that bus or rail fare is deductible, too.

Please note: The value of services you provide as a volunteer don’t merit a write-off. For instance, if you’re a carpenter and you help a nonprofit group build a home for the poor, you can deduct travel costs and building supplies you buy, but not the value of the work you do.

LIT’s Giving Advertising page was last updated on Nov 14, 2022.