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With the upcoming Holiday’s people are in the giving mood. These are some of the steps you need to take in order to claim donations you’ve made this year on your taxes.

Eligibility:
In order to deduct charitable donations from your taxes, you basically need to satisfy two conditions:

1. Itemize Your Deductions - Folks taking the standard deduction won’t get a tax benefit for charitable donations.
2. Donate to a Qualified Organization - Normally you can just ask and they’ll tell you, but IRS Publication 78 (it’s been upgraded to a search and is not a PDF) has a list of the common ones.

What You Donate:
The easiest thing you can donate is cash. You deduct the actual cash amount you donate.

The simplest things you can donate is property of some kind - whether it be a car, clothes, furniture, land, or any number of physical item. The general rule is you are able to deduct the fair market value of the item, as governed by the rules of IRS Publication 561 - Determining the Value of Donated Property. The rules for donating cars have changed recently from fair market value being determined by a blue book value to the actual price the car is sold for at auction.

If you donate your time and services, you cannot deduct any of it. You can’t take the fair market value of your service or anything like that, but you can deduct some personal expenses you wouldn’t have incurred had you not donated your services. An example is that you can deduct the cost of transportation to the location you are donating your services but you wouldn’t be permitted to deduct the cost of meals (since you would presumably have eaten regardless of your philanthropic efforts).

When You Donate:
The timing of your donation will affect when you can deduct it. It was easier back before checks and credit cards because you could control when items left your possession. For property, as soon as it leaves your hands you can count it in that year. For cash, the same rule applies as well. For checks and credit cards, you can deduct it the year in which you mail the check or apply the charge - not when the check is actually cashed or when the credit card is paid for.

Deduction Limits:
If you donated less than 20% of your adjusted gross income (AGI), move on, this won’t apply. Otherwise, the rules state that the most you can deduct is 50% of your AGI and, depending on your property, this limit may be capped at 30% and 20%. The rules are pretty extensive and probably don’t affect many people so I won’t go into them, check out pages 9 and 10 of Publication 526 for the rules.

Records:
Since you’ll be reducing how much Uncle Sam gets, they might come ask you about it. For cash donations, if it’s under $250, just keep a receipt of the donation or some other personal record of it. The rules for under $250 are pretty lax since for $20 donation to your church you probably don’t get a receipt. If you donate more than $250, you need to get an acknowledgment from the receiving organization that must meet these criteria: date, donation amount, what you received in return, description and good faith estimate of the value of the donation.

For property donations, the records you must keep are pretty extensive. The rules are basically the same for under $250 (date, location, description of property, and organization) and over $250, except if the property is over $500 but under $5000, you will need to explain: how you received the property, when you received/created it, and your cost basis. If it’s over $5000, then you will need a qualified written appraisal of the property in addition to everything else before it. So to recap, if you donate a $10,000 car you will need to follow the rules for under $250, between $250 and $500, between $500 and $5000, and then the final rule of over $5000 donations.

If there’s one place in Switzerland where you can expect a warm welcome, it’s a Swiss bank. There are some 600 in Switzerland, so competition for your money is intense. You will probably not be surprised to hear that Switzerland has one of the most effective banking systems in the world. Financial operations are usually straight-forward and customer service is excellent. The world-famous secrecy in the banking industry covers all customer accounts. Foreigners are very welcome when it comes to parking their money in Switzerland.

The major Swiss banks are UBS and Crédit Suisse (Schweizerische Kreditanstalt). However, the biggest banks don’t always offer the best conditions to private customers. There are quite a few smaller cantonal banks that offer excellent service for private customers - so shop around.
Opening hours
Banks usually open Monday to Friday from 8am to 4.30pm. Many banks open late one day a week, in major cities some branches also open on Saturday. Outside of cities, some smaller banks close for lunch.

In larger cities, you can also find 24 hour “automatic” service centers where you can change currencies, do transfers, withdraw money, buy travelers checks etc. Most banks offer internet banking as a standard service.

If you plan to stay in Switzerland for a while, one of your first things to do is open a Swiss bank account. You will need it for many transactions, including rent and salary payments.

Opening an account is a straightforward process, just go to a bank of your choice and tell them that you would like an account. Different types of accounts include the following:

* Current accounts - useful for day-to-day management of your money, but pay little interest.
* Salary accounts (Lohnkonto - compte salaire) pay a little more interest than current accounts, but you don’t get a chequebook and/or some other services.
* Saving accounts (Sparkonto – compte de livret) offer higher interest, but are not very useful for many transactions.

You can open a foreign currency account in Switzerland, however, these don’t usually pay interest. The Swiss franc is one of the most stable currencies in the world (and unique among major currencies in that it is still backed by gold), so the risk of holding the currency is lower than in many other instances.

Many banks also have special types of accounts that don’t fall into a specific category – bear in mind that fees can vary considerably between them. The best thing to do is to ask several banks for full information and compare different offers.
Student accounts

For students and young people, there are usually special accounts available with few or no account fees. Shop around and ask for special offers.

Bank statements are usually issued monthly. With a salary account you often only receive quarterly statements. At the end of the year, you will probably receive a listing of all bank charges, interests paid and taxes withheld. All information from Swiss banks can be requested in English, German, French and Italian.
Account cards

With most accounts, you will receive a free account card (Bankkarte - carte bancaire). This card can be used for cash withdrawals from ATMs and other transactions on your bank’s electronic terminals.

The currency in Costa Rica is the Colon, denoted as C. The Colon is divided into 100 centímos. Colon notes in circulation are C 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, and 10,000. Coins in circulation are of C 5, 10, 20, 25, 50 and 100.

Be careful when exchanging money on the black market, as there are many counterfeit bills circulating (both American dollars and Costa Rican Colones). The Central Bank in Costa Rica regularly devalues the Colon, so on a yearly basis you can expect it to lose 20% of its value (this is obviously very subject to change so check to see what’s happening).
Currency Exchange

There are several ways to exchange your currency into Costa Rican money. Banks tend to have varying exchange rates and walking around (or looking online) to compare rates is recommendable. A second option is the use of ATM’s, a service which is often cheaper than exchanging your currency inside the bank. ATM’s usually operate in Spanish and English. Exchange-booths and money changers on the street often have better exchange rates, but care has also to be taken regarding falsified bills.
Costa Rican Banks

The financial sector in Costa Rica consists of:

* The Central Bank of Costa Rica
* 3 state-owned commercial banks
* 19 private commercial banks
* 1 workers bank
* 1 state owned mortgage bank
* 4 mutual house building companies
* 15 private finance companies
* 30 investment and retirement funds

The state owned banks are Banco Nacional de Costa Rica, Banco de Costa Rica and BanCredito (Banco Crédito Agrícola de Cartago). Banco Nacional de Costa Rica and Banco de Costa Rica are found all over the country. State owned banks are financially backed by the government. State banks are consider to have slow service.

Private banks in Costa Rica include Banex, Banco San José and Scotiabank. Private banks generally offer better and faster service than state banks, but have fewer offices throughout the country. If you prefer to do your banking with a bank that has English speaking employees, private banks are a better bet.

The current trend in the Costa Rican financial sector is that banks merge or are taken over by foreign banks, there are relatively too many different banks operating in a small market. In Costa Rica it is possible to open a bank account in Colones or in US Dollars. The advantage of a dollar account is that you will not be facing the constant devaluation of the Colon.
Opening Hours

Banks generally open from 09:00 till 15:00. Differences exist between different cities, banks and time of the year. Banks are closed on Saturdays and Sundays. Most banks have ATMs available, most of which are open 24 hours/day.
Wire Transfers

Wire transfers to and from Costa Rica are generally not a problem. Be aware that things might run slower than you are used to in your home country. Internet banking, a service offered by most banks in Costa Rica makes it possible to arrange transfers from your computer. The use of a money transfer agencies is an alternative that can be considered. Money transfer agencies make use of agents all over the world. The main advantage of this method is that no bank account is needed and money transfer takes place very fast, - it takes around 10 minutes - and is very reliable. Unfortunately, commissions tend be very high (7-10%).
Short Term Loans

A wide range of short term loans are available in Costa Rica, ranging from car financing to personal loans. The state owned Banco de Costa Rica offer loans for 5, 7 and 10 years. Loans start at a US Dollar 1,000 minimum. Most banks offer similar loans and some banks tailor more to your needs. Requirements are usually time residency and proof of income (as a minimum).