Charitable donations reminder

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

I get asked to donate weeks by lots of people in terms like "you could claim this as a charitable donation and get some advertising out of it."
I donate lots but everyone needs to be reminded that the donation of the use of a week is not tax deductible.

Partial Interest in Property
Generally, you cannot deduct a charitable contribution of less than your entire interest in property.

Example 2. Mandy White owns a vacation home at the beach that she sometimes rents to others. For a fund-raising auction at her church, she donated the right to use the vacation home for 1 week. At the auction, the church received and accepted a bid from Lauren Green equal to the fair rental value of the home for 1 week. Mandy cannot claim a deduction because of the partial interest rule. Lauren cannot claim a deduction either, because she received a benefit equal to the amount of her payment. See Contributions From Which You Benefit, earlier.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p526.pdf

..and I've never received an inquiry because of a donation.

[flexible Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close flexible]

I read of a related problem either in a IRS publication or a Tax book like CCH.

Someone claiming a 'vacation home' gave the use of a week to his church. Since the week was not a charitable deduction it was considered 'personal use.' It changed the number of days requiredfor the 'vacation home' home and thus the IRS disallowed his 'vacation home' deduction that year.

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Vacation Internationale sends forms where you can allow points that expire to automatically be given to charities. Sounds like an incentive not to be concerned with points expiring. I met people who purchased VI vacations at charity auctions. I think VI and other resorts just want 'fresh people' in to sell them a TS. I don't understand why their literature makes it sound like we can deduct the value of those points as a charitable donation. I agree with you that they are not deductible.

[dwmantz Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dwmantz]

From an organization perspective, cash or check is always preferred.

However, for an individual doing the giving, one of the best ways to give, is with appreciated stock (if you can find much of that these days).