Donate to Read Aloud; lower your tax bill 

NIP credits offered for gifts of $500 or more 

You qualify for Neighborhood Investment Program tax credits if you: 

— Pay income taxes in West Virginia, or 

— Pay corporate net income taxes in West Virginia, and  

— Donate $500 or more to Read Aloud West Virginia. 

Taxpayers can use this credit even if they don’t itemize on federal or state income tax returns. 

It works like this: 

  1. Send a donation of $500 or more to a qualifying organization, such as Read Aloud WV. 
  1. Read Aloud sends you a voucher for as much as half the gift amount. At tax time, turn in the voucher to reduce your tax bill by that amount. Taxpayers may use all or part of the credit. They have five years to use all the credit. 

A larger gift qualifies for a larger credit. So, a $1,000 donation gets $500 in tax credits. A $5,000 gift qualifies for $2,500 off, and so on.  

The maximum tax credit allowed in any one year is $100,000. Donors cannot reduce their total state tax bill by more than 50 percent. 

NIP credits are administered by the state to encourage donations to local nonprofits. 

Every dollar donated to Read Aloud results in more time spent sending volunteer readers into classrooms to motivate children to read for fun, or giving kids happy, choice-filled book distributions. 

As little as $100 can fund books for an entire classroom, while $1,100 can fund a month of Books for Babies, providing a new book for all babies born at Women and Children’s Hospital, CAMC, for example. 

To donate: 

  1. Mail a check to Read Aloud WV, PO Box 1784, Charleston, WV 25326 (the most cost-effective method). 
  1. Go to readaloudwv.org and click the Donate button to make a secure donation through Square.  
  1. Transfer stock. Call 304-345-5212 or email stateoffice@readaloudwv.org for details. 
  1. Direct a retirement account distribution to Read Aloud. If it comes straight from your financial institution, even a disbursement from a tax-deferred plan may not incur taxes, and it will also qualify for the NIP tax credit. Call or email for details.