On March 11, 2011, Japan suffered damages from an earthquake and tsunami. Many people contributed to relief funds for the victims of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. The IRS released a notice designating the Japan’s March 2011 earthquake and tsunami as a qualified disaster. This means recipients of employer-sponsored private foundations can exclude qualified disaster-relief payments from gross income.

For 2011 only, if you itemized your deductions, you could claim a charitable deduction for contributions made to the Japan’s relief effort.

The donation must be both of these:

• Made in cash for the relief of victims in areas affected by the earthquake in Japan on March 11, 2011
• Made to a U.S. charitable organization that’s allowed to receive deductible donations

If you made the donation through a text message, use your phone bill to verify the donation. The bill must show all of these:

• Name of donee organization
• Date of donation
• Donation amount

You usually can’t deduct contributions to foreign organizations.

To learn more, see the Charitable Donations tax tip.