The Tuesday after Thanksgiving marks Giving Tuesday when many people choose to make charitable donations. People making charitable donations for Giving Tuesday, or at any time during the year, should review whether their gift is tax-deductible.

Donations to charities may be deductible
Most contributions of cash or property made to a charitable organization are deductible as an itemized deduction on Schedule A, Form 1040, Itemized Deductions. Cash contributions include those made by check, credit card or debit card, as well as unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses in connection with volunteer services to a qualifying charitable organization. Donations of property other than cash are generally deductible at their fair market value.

There are some contributions that aren’t tax deductible, including donations:

• Made to a supporting organization
• Intended to help establish or maintain a donor advised fund
• Carried forward from prior years
• Made to most private foundations
• Made to charitable remainder trusts
• Of time spent volunteering

Some things to do when a taxpayer is considering making charitable gifts include:

• Use the Interactive Tax Assistant to help determine if a charitable contribution is deductible.
• Get a written acknowledgement for any charitable contributions of $250 or more.
• Research charities they are considering donating to carefully.

Tax Exempt Organization Search tool
As people are deciding where to make their donations, the IRS has a tool that may help. Tax Exempt Organization Search on IRS.gov is a tool that allows users to search for charities. TEOS provides information about an organization's federal tax status and filings.

Things to know about the TEOS tool:

• Donors can use it to confirm an organization is tax-exempt and eligible to receive tax-deductible charitable contributions.
• Users can find out if an organization had its tax-exempt status revoked.
• TEOS does not list certain organizations that may be eligible to receive tax-deductible donations, including churches, organizations in a group ruling and governmental entities.
• TEOS lists organizations under the legal name or a "doing business as" name on file with the IRS. No separate listing of common or popular names is searchable.

​Qualified charitable distributions
Taxpayers age 70 ½ or older can make a qualified charitable distribution directly from their IRA, other than a SEP or SIMPLE IRA, to a qualified charitable organization. The maximum annual amount a taxpayer may exclude from income for a QCD is $100,000. A QCD may also count toward the taxpayer’s required minimum distribution for the year. Taxpayers should review Publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements, for more information.

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The end of the calendar year is an important time for businesses of all sizes. It's when businesses need to start organizing the year's financial information for tax season. Though the filing deadline may be months away, your company should be thinking about ways to make that period as easy as possible.
What should small business owners be doing right now to prepare for tax season.

Automate your tax prep
In today's world, there are countless programs, apps and services available to help make tax time less of a burden. Using QuickBooks in your business to track your sales, expenses and other financial information helps to make the tax preparation process more streamlined. The way taxes should be dealt with is to automate the process. The earlier you proceed towards automation, the less time needed to work in tax season, which means more time remaining to focus on your business.

​Review your business expenses
As every business owner knows, tax season means taking stock of the company's income, expenses and deductions. To get ahead of this task, business owners should do this throughout the year, thus ensuring a smooth ride when it comes time to file taxes.
The biggest part of preparing for taxes is what should already have been done which is keeping track of all business expenses throughout the year. If everything has been entered into your accounting system in a timely fashion, then the hardest part is done. If not, you need to set aside some time to gather and enter everything correctly."
Implementing a good filing system, is key to making sure you can easily locate and organize all your business expenses. Again, accounting software like QuickBooks Online is affordable option for small businesses looking to sync and track bank account activity, expenses and invoices.

Learn which tax law changes will affect you
Tax laws are constantly changing, and it's wise to stay alert and up-to-date on changes that could affect your business. Business owners need to recognize that new reporting requirements, I'll need to make sure you're meeting those requirements.
If you're unsure of what any tax law updates could mean for your business, be sure to consult your accountant.

Best practices for tax time
Understand your deductions and requirements. Consult with a tax preparer before the end of the year will help them clean things up, take better advantage of available deductions, and hopefully costs. For example, many owners may not be aware that the tax code only allows a 50 percent deduction for meals and entertainment. However, there is an allowed deduction of 100 percent for specific meals, like holiday parties, or when an employer provides a meal for employees at work, for the employer's convenience. Knowing how to track these items during the year will ensure the best possible deduction.

Think about how future plans will affect next year's numbers. Are you going to be selling your business next year? Speak with your accountant about the reporting method you use — cash basis or accrual basis. The method will impact your P&L [profits and losses]. When a buyer is looking at your business, less profit can influence whether they will buy.

Save up for tax-day liability costs. With no cash to cover the tax liability, the consequence is usually additional fines and penalties that would not have been accrued with proper planning and focus. Our recommendation is to create a separate bank account. As money comes in, set it aside into that account ... and when Tax Day comes, you have the cash on hand to cover your liability.

​Know when to outsource. Many small businesses are successful due to their do-it-yourself approach to solving problems. Taxes are sometimes best left to the professionals. By hiring a professional, you ensure that they're done correctly, and free yourself up to continuing managing your primary business needs.

All taxpayers should familiarize themselves with the Taxpayer Bill of Rights

By law, all taxpayers have fundamental rights when they’re interacting with the IRS. It’s important that all taxpayers know and understand their rights. The Taxpayer Bill of Rights presents these rights in 10 categories.

Here’s an overview of these rights. For full official details about each right, click the links below.

• The right to be informed Taxpayers have the right to know what they need to do to comply with the tax laws.
• The right to quality service Taxpayers have the right to receive prompt, courteous and professional assistance when working with the IRS and the freedom to speak to a supervisor about inadequate service.
• The right to pay no more than the correct amount of tax Taxpayers have the right to pay only the amount of tax legally due, including interest and penalties, and to have the IRS apply all tax payments properly.
• The right to challenge the IRS’s position and be heard Taxpayers have the right to object to formal IRS actions or proposed actions and provide justification with additional documentation.
• The right to appeal an IRS decision in an independent forum Taxpayers are entitled to a fair and impartial administrative appeal of most IRS decisions, including certain penalties.
• The right to finality Taxpayers have the right to know the maximum amount of time they have to challenge an IRS position and the maximum amount of time the IRS must audit a particular tax year or collect a tax debt.
• The right to privacy Taxpayers have the right to expect that any IRS inquiry, examination or enforcement action will comply with the law and be no more intrusive than necessary.
• The right to confidentiality Taxpayers have the right to expect that their tax information will remain confidential.
• The right to retain representation Taxpayers have the right to retain an authorized representative of their choice to represent them in their interactions with the IRS.
• The right to a fair and just tax system Taxpayers have the right to expect fairness from the tax system. This includes considering all facts and circumstances that might affect their liabilities, ability to pay or provide information timely.