Americans give billions of dollars per year to charities.  In fact, charitable deductions in 2002 totaled over $136 billion.  According to the IRS Statistics of Income Bulletin (winter 2003-04), here are the average breakdown of claimed deductions for charitable contributions on 2002 tax returns:

• Taxpayers with Adjusted Gross Income between $15,000 to $30,000 averaged charitable contributions of $1,890.
• Taxpayers with AGI between $30,000 and $50,000 averaged $2,006 in charitable contributions.
• Taxpayers with AGI between $50,000 and $100,000 averaged $2,530 in charitable contributions.
• Taxpayers with AGI between $100,000 and $200,000 averaged $3,875 in charitable contributions.
• Taxpayers with AGI over $200,000 averaged $17,354 in charitable contributions.

• Should you change your corporate status? Way back in December 1997, Inc. Magazine published an article that discussed the circumstances under which a business may want to consider switching its corporate status.  Among the conditions it discussed were the following: The company needs capital. If you're simply contemplating raising your credit line or bringing in some......
• What are "Start-Up" costs? To the IRS, qualified start-up costs are those expenses that a business incurs while in the process of determining whether or not to start a new business, and which new business to begin.  This is often called the "whether or which test".  See IRS Rev. Rul. 99-23, 1999-1 CB 998.......

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