Tsunami Relief Donations May Be Tax-Deductible for 2004: Donate Today

Taxpayers would be able to claim deductions for contributions to tsunami relief efforts on their 2004 tax returns under legislation introduced Tuesday by the chairman and top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee.

The bill, sponsored by Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., would allow charitable contributions for tsunami relief made through the month of January to be claimed as deductions on taxpayers' 2004 tax returns.

Normally, any donations made in 2005 could not be claimed until taxpayers filed their 2005 tax returns a year from now.

Both Grassley and Baucus said they hoped legislation to extend the deduction deadline until Jan. 31 would bolster support for the private relief effort that is being led by former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Aides to both senators predicted quick congressional passage for the measure.

OVERWHELMING AID. Already, U.S.-based relief groups report an overwhelming response from donors moved by the devastation of the Indian Ocean tsunami, with more than $200 million raised as of Tuesday. One charity said online pledges were coming in at the rate of $100,000 an hour.

Donors ranged from actress Sandra Bullock, who gave $1 million, to 3-year-old Antonio Cabrera, who joined his brothers in dropping off cash-filled sandwich bags at the American Red Cross office in Denver.

Firm statistics for relief campaigns are elusive. But charity officials said they expected donations to continue streaming in for weeks to come, putting the tsunami in the company of the Ethiopian famine of the mid-1980s and Central America's Hurricane Mitch of 1998 as the foreign disasters prompting the largest contributions from U.S. citizens.

"TOUCHED A CHORD." The private donations are in addition to the $350 million pledged thus far by the U.S. government.

The No. 1 recipient, by far, has been the American Red Cross; its pledged tsunami donations as of Tuesday totaled $92 million.

''Something about this disaster has really touched a chord,'' said Suzanne McCormick, who heads the Red Cross chapter in southern Maine.

''In terms of international relief, we have never seen anything on this scale.''

Other major recipients included the U.S. Fund for UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders USA, with donations of about $20 million each; and World Vision, Oxfam America, Catholic Relief Services and Save the Children, each reporting gifts of roughly $15 million from U.S. sources.

Dozens of other agencies also were collecting funds for tsunami relief. A New Jersey council of mosques raised $250,000, the Akron, Pa.-based Mennonite Central Committee $2.5 million.

The Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services has committed $25 million for relief efforts; spokeswoman Caroline Brennan said her colleagues were confident of raising that sum without dipping into reserves.

To make a donation, visit: http://www.usafreedomcorps.gov/, or the Red Cross at www.redcross.org.