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Donating This Year? Uncle Sam Needs Your Help
by Jeanne Sahadi |
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You've probably heard about the country's giant debt load - $12 trillion and rising.
Did you know you can help reduce it?
Under a little-known law enacted in 1961, Uncle Sam accepts tax-deductible contributions to pay down the country's debt.
Not that the Treasury Department does much to publicize the program.
You can find it under the header "Accepting Gifts" in the U.S. Code. Or, if you're not an avid reader of dusty legal books, you can check the FAQ section on the Web site of the Bureau of Public Debt, an agency within Treasury. Or flip to page 91 of the IRS' 2009 Instruction Booklet for Form 1040.
Contributions made are typically small -- under $100. But there have been a few humdingers over the years.
The largest single gift ever made was in 1992 for $3.5 million, said Mckayla Braden, a spokesperson for the Bureau of the Public Debt.
For fiscal year 2009, all donations totaled just over $3 million. That's well more than what was donated in any single year in the decade prior. But it's far less than the nearly $21 million collected in 1994.
The money credited to the "Gifts to Reduce the Public Debt" account in theory reduces the amount of money the government has to borrow to finance its debt. But the dent is not deep or lasting.
"We might have to finance a tiny bit less that week," Braden said.
The nuts and bolts
There are two ways to give. One is to send a check directly to the Bureau of Public Debt, an agency within the Treasury Department. The address: Attn: Dept G, Bureau of the Public Debt, P.O. Box 2188, Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188.
The other is to include a check -- separate from any tax payment you make - with your federal income tax return.
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