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Give! (And keep track of your donations!)

There’s a benefit to charitable giving beyond the warm and fuzzy holiday spirit — such donations can shave a bit off the year’s tax bill.

In this time of giving, roughly 25 percent of us choose to donate before the end of the year. And there’s a benefit to charitable giving beyond the warm and fuzzy holiday spirit — such donations can shave a bit off the year’s tax bill.

But keeping careful track of your donations is crucial. In order to do this more effectively, Marketplace Money host Carmen Wong-Ulrich offers one bit of advice:

“When you give to charities, many now use online payment systems,” Wong-Ulrich says. “So if you can use a credit or a debit card, it enables you to probably tag your charitable giving. So at the end of the year you can just log in to your account, and you can pull up what you’ve given for the whole year so you don’t miss any of those deductions.”

Click on the above audio player to hear more tax-friendly money moves you can make before the year’s end.

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