Blog

We keep you up to date on the latest tax changes and news in the industry.

A Novel Way to Make COVID-19 Relief Donations

Article Highlights:

  • Donating unused vacation time, sick leave and personal time 
  • Employer’s Function 
  • Great Donation Opportunity 
On March 13, 2020 the President issued an emergency disaster declaration under the Stafford Act as a result of the coronavirus disease pandemic. The disaster area covers all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. Territories. As a result, and as was done in the past in the wake of major disasters, including Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, Harvey and Maria, the IRS is providing special relief that allows employees to donate their unused paid vacation, sick leave, and personal leave time to COVID-19 relief efforts.

Here is how it works: if your employer is participating, you can relinquish any unused and paid vacation time, sick leave and personal leave for cash payments which your employer will donate to COVID-19 relief charitable organizations. The cash payment will not be treated as wages to you and your employer can deduct the amount donated as a business expense. However, since the income isn’t taxable to you, you will not be allowed to claim the donation as a charitable deduction on your tax return. Even so, excluding income is often worth more as tax savings than a potential tax deduction, especially if you generally claim the standard deduction* or you are subject to AGI-based limitations.



This special relief applies to all donations made before January 1, 2021, giving individuals plenty of time to forgo their unused paid vacation, sick and leave time and have the cash value donated to a worthy cause.

This is a great opportunity to provide sorely needed help in the ongoing COVID-19 emergency without costing you anything but time. Contact your employer to make a donation. If your employer is unaware of his program refer them to IRS Notice 2020-46 for further details.

If you have questions related to donating leave time for COVID-19 relief efforts or other charitable contributions, please contact this office.

*Normally, charitable contributions are deductible only if you itemize your deductions on Schedule A as part of your 1040 return. This means you wouldn’t get a tax benefit from your donations if you claim the standard deduction instead of itemizing. However, the CARES Act, passed in late March, 2020, allows up to $300 of cash charitable contributions made in 2020 to be deducted from your income even if you use the standard deduction. Of course, as noted above, you can’t deduct the value of COVID-19 relief donations made through leave-based donation programs in any case. Instead the leave time is non-taxable.


Share this article...

Sign up for our newsletter.

Each month, we will send you a roundup of our latest blog content covering the tax and accounting tips & insights you need to know.

I confirm this is a service inquiry and not an advertising message or solicitation. By clicking “Submit”, I acknowledge and agree to the creation of an account and to the and .

We care about the protection of your data.


“We are always looking to grow our business. Should you have any clients, friends, business associates looking for high quality accounting services from a CPA firm, please have them contact us.”

This e-mail (including any attachments) is only for the exclusive use of the individual to whom it is addressed. The information contained hereinafter may be proprietary, confidential, privileged and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If the reader of this e-mail is not the intended recipient or agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, the reader is hereby put on notice that any use, dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If the reader has received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail and delete all copies of this e-mail and any attachments.

IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: In order to ensure compliance with IRS Circular 230, we must inform you that any U.S. tax advice contained in this transmission and any attachments hereto is not intended or written to be used and may not be used by any person for the purpose of (i) avoiding any penalty that may be imposed by the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any tax-related matter(s) addressed herein.

Richards Group PC, CPA We love to chat!
Please feel free to ask a question, our Ai chat assistant would love to help.
Please fill out the form and our team will get back to you shortly The form was sent successfully