How are other schools handling their license plate requests?
Does the advancement office handle those? Does the Business Office handle those as miscellaneous revenue?
Corie Pryor
Coordinator of Advancement Services
Advancement Office
Truman State University
Kirksville MO 63501
cpryor@truman.edu<mailto:
cpryor@truman.edu>
660-785-4125
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From: Advancement Services Discussion List [mailto:
FUNDSVCS@LISTSERV.FUNDSVCS.ORG] On Behalf Of John Taylor
Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2019 1:53 PM
To:
FUNDSVCS@LISTSERV.FUNDSVCS.ORG
Subject: Re: [FUNDSVCS] University License Plates (again)
The scenario described is an obvious (to me) quid pro quo as described in IRS Publication 526 (amongst many other resources). Forget the fact that we are dealing with a license plate. The "what" is not relevant. It is the "how" that is relevant. In order for an individual to obtain a specific item, they must pay $100. They cannot obtain that item without paying $100. Therefore, they are making a purchase and receiving something of equal value in exchange.
There is no gift here and, therefore, no receipt that looks like a gift receipt can be issued.
John
John H. Taylor
Principal, John H. Taylor Consulting
2604 Sevier St.
Durham, NC 27705
johntaylorconsulting@gmail.com<mailto:
johntaylorconsulting@gmail.com>
919.816.5903 (cell/text)
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On Thu, Jun 27, 2019 at 2:41 PM Boone, Marijana R <
boonemr@cofc.edu<mailto:
boonemr@cofc.edu>> wrote:
Our Alumni Association (like many other universities) has a program with the state DMV for a University license plate and receives scholarship income from that program - that part is straight-forward as we don't get involved in trying to figure out who went out and bought the plate on their own.
However, when the program started, the Association reserved the first 100 plates to which they are providing access in exchange for a $100 contribution to the scholarship fund. My view is that because one cannot access these 100 plates without paying into the fund first, and because they are de facto assigning them a specific plate in exchange for this contribution, this establishes the FMV of these limited edition license plates at the price that is equal to DMV's price + the $100 "contribution." I might have been able to win that argument had they (and I) not done a few web searches and uncovered a slew of university alumni associations that specifically state these are tax-deductible donations (which I would also never say without the "to the extent allowable" or some other similar caveat).
In searching the archives, I only came up with one conversation about this from 2015 that appears inconclusive.
What is it about these license plate fees that makes them tax-deductible contributions and how do I issue a receipt that states "no goods or services were received" when I know that they received a specific limited edition license plate number? Is it that it has no "real world" value outside of the small pool of our donors? I feel like I'm rationalizing... but I'd really love to know how others are handling this.
Thanks for your advice!
Marijana Radić Boone ’01, MPA ’03
Executive Director, Advancement Services
College of Charleston | 66 George Street | Charleston, S.C. 29424
843.953.5647 (o) | 843.640.9135 (c) |
boonemr@cofc.edu<mailto:
boonemr@cofc.edu>