A new report by the fiscal division of Montana legislative services shows that charitable donations in Montana are going up. Fiscal analyst Stephanie Morrison looked at the amount of credit claimed by individual income taxpayers.

"The chart reflects only the credit that is claimed by individual income tax payers," Morrison said. "You can certainly see trending with the economy. It goes up, an increase between 2003 and 2006, and then declined over that period from 2007 and 2009, and it's climbing now again."

But things changed direction in 2012.

"We are back on the upswing," said Morrison. "About $2.1 million was claimed for the credit in 2012--no where near the peak of about just over $3.2 million claimed in 2006."

The maximum amount that can be claimed as a charitable deduction in Montana is ten thousand dollars. The number of people that make a maximum claim has remained surprisingly consistent at around 550 stretching all of the way back to 2003.

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