FundSvcs Community

Greeting Colleagues, It me with another question. The company that usually wants to rent chairs to us for commencement is offering to do it for free this year. It is my feeling that, because they are not actually donating a "thing," meaning they are not giving us the chairs - they are loaning them, this is not a tax-deductible event. I suggested that they invoice the College, then send the amount back to us as a monetary donation. Is this correct? Thanks for your assistance. Liz Rich -- Elizabeth Rich Director of Advancement Services Elms College, 291 Springfield Street, Chicopee, MA 01013 Ph: 413-265-2403 Fax: 413-265-2449 To make a gift: http://www.elms.edu/make-a-gift-online/

You are correct. Otherwise, it is a partial interest gift (no ownership being conveyed) and not tax-deductible per IRS Publication 526. John John H. Taylor Principal, John H. Taylor Consulting 2604 Sevier St. Durham, NC 27705 johntaylorconsulting@gmail.com 919.816.5903 (cell/text) Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987 On Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 3:56 PM Rich, Elizabeth <riche@elms.edu> wrote: > Greeting Colleagues, > It me with another question. The company that usually wants to rent chairs > to us for commencement is offering to do it for free this year. It is my > feeling that, because they are not actually donating a "thing," meaning > they are not giving us the chairs - they are loaning them, this is not a > tax-deductible event. I suggested that they invoice the College, then send > the amount back to us as a monetary donation. Is this correct? > Thanks for your assistance. > Liz Rich > > -- > > Elizabeth Rich > Director of Advancement Services > Elms College, 291 Springfield Street, Chicopee, MA 01013 > Ph: 413-265-2403 Fax: 413-265-2449 > > To make a gift: http://www.elms.edu/make-a-gift-online/ >

A helpful rule of thumb is that charitable contributions are either gifts of cash or gifts of property other than cash (the tax code and IRS regulations use this language or its like in a number of places). So, in this case, you are only given the use of the chairs, not the chairs themselves, as you note, so that’s a “partial interest” in property and not a gift of the property itself. The alternative arrangement would probably allow you to count a gift, although it could be a bit tricky to make sure that is a voluntary gift rather than a contractual exchange. In any case, while that sort of arrangement could mean that you get to count a gift, the vendor doesn’t really get anything out of it, since they have the additional income from the rental and the offsetting charitable gift, which is—at best—a wash. So they may or may not be interested in the alternative approach. My US$0.02 worth; the usual disclaimers apply. Good luck! Alan Alan S. Hejnal Data Quality Manager Smithsonian Institution - Office of Advancement 600 Maryland Avenue SW, Suite 600E P.O. Box 37012, MRC 527 Washington, DC 20013-7012 •: 202-633-8754 | •: HejnalA@si.edu<mailto:HejnalA@si.edu> [SNAGHTML5cbfa34]<https://www.si.edu/> [AASP_FundSvcs_LOGO-01(040pct)(mark)] From: Advancement Services Discussion List <FUNDSVCS@LISTSERV.FUNDSVCS.ORG> On Behalf Of Rich, Elizabeth Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2019 3:57 PM To: FUNDSVCS@LISTSERV.FUNDSVCS.ORG Subject: [FUNDSVCS] Question About Rental Items Greeting Colleagues, It me with another question. The company that usually wants to rent chairs to us for commencement is offering to do it for free this year. It is my feeling that, because they are not actually donating a "thing," meaning they are not giving us the chairs - they are loaning them, this is not a tax-deductible event. I suggested that they invoice the College, then send the amount back to us as a monetary donation. Is this correct? Thanks for your assistance. Liz Rich -- Elizabeth Rich Director of Advancement Services Elms College, 291 Springfield Street, Chicopee, MA 01013 Ph: 413-265-2403 Fax: 413-265-2449 To make a gift: http://www.elms.edu/make-a-gift-online/<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.elms.edu%2Fmake-a-gift-online%2F&data=02%7C01%7CHejnalA%40SI.EDU%7Cdf442a1f2f544fee856208d6b3b78a97%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C1%7C0%7C636893998219608652&sdata=Mq6qLlmuvlhiDFtheDuqMQ8idzIVdYXPylnqsi8%2BIdE%3D&reserved=0>