The Tax Law of Charitable Giving. Bruce R. Hopkins

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Название The Tax Law of Charitable Giving
Автор произведения Bruce R. Hopkins
Жанр Личностный рост
Серия
Издательство Личностный рост
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781119756026



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Treasury and the IRS stated, in the preamble to the proposed regulations, that “[c]ompelling policy considerations” mandate these rules, in that “[d]isregarding the value of all state tax benefits received or expected to be received in return for charitable contributions would precipitate revenue losses that would undermine and be inconsistent with the limitation on the deduction for state and local taxes adopted by Congress.”136

      When a benefit to a donor is incidental, the benefit will not defeat the charitable deduction. The following are instances of application of that rule.

       A tornado destroyed several homes in a town. The local chapter of the American National Red Cross provided food and temporary shelter to an individual whose home was destroyed. The individual, motivated by gratitude, made a (deductible) contribution to the chapter. 143

       An individual owned a home in an area served by a volunteer fire department. Neither state nor local taxes were used to support the fire department. The individual made a (deductible) contribution to the volunteer department's annual fund drive.144

       An individual's daughter was a member of a local unit of the Girl Scouts of America. The individual made a (deductible) contribution to the Girl Scouts of America.145

       Merchants and owners of property in a city made (deductible) contributions to the city to enable it to provide railroad companies with new facilities outside the city, in exchange for the railroads' removal of their inner-city facilities and relinquishment of their right of way through the city (even though the merchants and property owners received some benefit from removal of the railroad facilities).146

       An organization made (deductible) contributions to a police department to assist the department, as a regular part of its operations, in offering rewards for information leading to the apprehension and conviction of persons engaging in criminal activity within the community in which the organization was located.147

       A parent of a murdered individual made a (deductible) contribution of reward money to the police department of a political subdivision for information leading to the conviction of the murderer, with some or all of the money available for public purposes if not needed to pay the reward.148

       An individual made a (deductible) contribution of a tract of land to the federal government and retained the right during his lifetime to train his hunting dog on the trails extending over the tract.149

       A developer of a residential community made a (deductible) contribution of real estate, tangible personal property, and cash to a state to assist in the construction of a highway (even though the highway would benefit the planned community).150

       An individual made a (deductible) contribution of a tract of land and a house to an educational organization for a conference and retreat center. The contribution was deductible even though the donor retained an adjoining lot for personal use and a nonexclusive easement for pedestrian and vehicular ingress and egress over the existing driveway on the contributed lot.151

       A member of a federal advisory committee, who incurs unreimbursed travel and other out-of-pocket expenses while performing services without compensation as a member of that committee, is entitled to a charitable deduction for the expenses as long as the requirements for the deduction are satisfied (“other than those relating to the expectation of any benefit or financial return”).152