Volunteer vacations: doing well by doing good - taking tax deductions for working vacations with volunteer organizations

Nation's Business, Dec, 1990 by Peter Weaver

Volunteer Vacations: Doing Well By Doing Good

How would you like to take a holiday ski trip, visit a national park, or roam a wooded nature trail--and get a tax break while you're at it?

Thousands of those who like the outdoors do it every year, using valuable tax deductions to help cover travel costs and other expenses. Is there a catch? Of course there is. You have to do some work for a good cause.

Volunteers cannot get deductions for the time they give, of course, but they can take deductions for certain out-of-pocket expenses. To attract volunteer helpers willing to spend both time and tax-deductible money, a number of charitable organizations have worked up all sorts of intriguing outdoor activities.

For example, the American Hiking Society's Volunteer Vacations program involves two-week trips to work on wilderness-trail maintenance. "You provide your own transportation," says the organization's Shirley Hearn, "and we provide food and lodging." If you drive to the trail site, you should be able to deduct 12 cents a mile for the round trip. If you must fly, you can deduct the airfare, parking, and other travel-related expenses.

If you are not provided with meals while you're working, you should be able to deduct your meal expenses.

"With us, the situation varies," says Paul Martin, spokesman for the Nature Conservancy. On some volunteer projects, he says, "you pay all of your expenses, including food and lodging." In other cases, lodging is provided.

Many volunteer organizations will take anyone who signs up as a work-project volunteer. The National Ski Patrol System, however, won't sign you up unless you have been trained and certified to do the job. "The usual procedure," says Becky Ayres of the National Ski Patrol System, "is to get your training, and eventual job, in a specific area." But that doesn't mean you can't go to some other ski area during peak-crowd times if the local patrol will say in writing that it needs extra help.

To become a ski patroller, you must pass a series of courses in winter emergency care, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, toboggan handling, lift evacuation, and special skiing skills.

While you're in training, you can't take any travel-related tax deductions. But when you graduate and begin to do patrol work, you can start deducting out-of-pocket travel expenses the same as any other volunteer.

Not all nonprofit outdoor organizations qualify for tax deductions. Some, such as the Sierra Club, are listed as lobbyists, making contributions nondeductible. "The question you have to ask," says Ski Patrol legal counsel Walter Gregg, "is whether or not the non-profit organization has an Internal Revenue Service rating as a charity." If it does, and if its program fits your vacation plans, you can pick up some deductions.

Here are some of the organizations seeking outdoor volunteers:

* American Hiking Society, 1015 31st Street, N.W., Washington D.C. 20007; (202) 385-3252. For $5 you can get a list of volunteer jobs on public lands as well as some environmental and archeological jobs.

* The Nature Conservancy, 1815 North Lynn St., Arlington, Va. 22209; (703) 841-5300, will tell you the nearest conservancy office where you can submit a volunteer application.

* National Ski Patrol System, 133 South Van Gordon St., Suite 100, Lakewood Colo. 80228-1706; (303) 988-1111. Contact the ski patrol office in your area first. If you have any other questions, the national office will help.

The Givers Guide, by Philip English Mackey (Catbird Press), covers all sorts of topics under the "art of giving," including a detailed listing of volunteer organizations by subject matter.

PHOTO : On patrol for vacation, voluntarism--and tax deductions.

Peter Weaver is a Washington-based columnist on personal finance.