Charitable Contributions: Tax Deductions

[tkmarshel]

What is the name of your state?FL
What vehicle would I file in order for a friend to purchase a 10k wheelchair for my daughter. The friend must get the tax deduction.
thanks tim

[racer72]

Your friend can only take a tax deduction for equipment bought for himself or his dependants only. This would be considered a gift and is not tax deductable.

[tkmarshel]

Fl.
Lets say that my friend donated the money for the wheelchair to his favorite church, and this church purchased the wheelchair for the child? Would this be considered then a charitable deduction?

[Snipes5]

No. That would be considered a tax-motivated transaction, and the IRS doesn't like those.

A charitable donation can't be designated to a specific individual.

Snipes

[tdavidl]

very well said snipes.

food for thought, IF the church wanted to raise funds (held a fundraiser) to help buy a chair for one of their parishoners (sp?), your friend could certainly contribute to the fundraiser.

[racer72]

Originally Posted by tdavidl

very well said snipes.

food for thought, IF the church wanted to raise funds (held a fundraiser) to help buy a chair for one of their parishoners (sp?), your friend could certainly contribute to the fundraiser.

Even then, the IRS is going to look at a single 10k donation to a single cause with a jaundiced eye. And the recipient of such a fund raiser could be held liable for income taxes. The only exception would be if the fundraiser was due to personal losses of the recipient, such as replacing furnishings due to a house fire.

[tdavidl]

Originally Posted by racer72

Even then, the IRS is going to look at a single 10k donation to a single cause with a jaundiced eye.

are you suggesting that the IRS looks at every donation of $10k or more to a qualified charitable organization ? even if they did, is it illegal ?

Originally Posted by racer72

And the recipient of such a fund raiser could be held liable for income taxes.

really ? what type of taxable or reportable income would that be ?

Originally Posted by racer72

And The only exception would be if the fundraiser was due to personal losses of the recipient, such as replacing furnishings due to a house fire.

really ? that's the only exception a church can use to provide relief for someone in their community on a "tax-free" basis (a gift) ?

so every christmas when our church decides to help out a few local families who have had a difficult getting buy for reasons other then personal losses (like jobless, loss of a parent, etc.) those families may have taxable income (the gifts) ?

help me out here becuase i'm

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by tdavidl

are you suggesting that the IRS looks at every donation of $10k or more to a qualified charitable organization ? even if they did, is it illegal ?



really ? what type of taxable or reportable income would that be ?



really ? that's the only exception a church can use to provide relief for someone in their community on a "tax-free" basis (a gift) ?

so every christmas when our church decides to help out a few local families who have had a difficult getting buy for reasons other then personal losses (like jobless, loss of a parent, etc.) those families may have taxable income (the gifts) ?

help me out here becuase i'm

The church is providing help at Christmas to multiple families.

[tdavidl]

so if we decided to help only one family & even more specifically one person in need, that would change things ?

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by tdavidl

so if we decided to help only one family & even more specifically one person in need, that would change things ?

It could. However the biggest issue here is that we are talking about ONE individual who intends to provide the funds to purchase a wheelchair for another SINGLE individual....and the suggestion was made that the money be funneled through a church to make it a tax deductible charitable donation.

Its the "character" of the entire transaction that makes a the biggest difference.

[tdavidl]

well i'm sorry if the "character" of the transaction bothers you, it doesn't necessarily make it illegal.

i agree that the suggestion of asking a church to take you money for a specific purpose isn't the best approach to accomplish the goal.

however, asking your church to help rasie funds for your child, who needs a wheelchair, thru a fundrasier & then informing your generous friend of this, so they can help, isn't illegal to my knowledge.

using the tax code to your advantage during a transaction isn't illegal. look at code sec 1031 exchanges, look at the folks turning their vacation homes into primary residences to avoid huge capital gain taxes, happens all the time.

i simply saw someone trying to help someone in need & looking to save some taxes at the same time, there's nothing wrong with that in my eyes. it's a worthy cause.

oh, and i suppose i do funnel alot of money thru my church (and other charities) so they can help others who are in need. there goes my character

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by tdavidl

well i'm sorry if the "character" of the transaction bothers you, it doesn't necessarily make it illegal.

i agree that the suggestion of asking a church to take you money for a specific purpose isn't the best approach to accomplish the goal.

however, asking your church to help rasie funds for your child, who needs a wheelchair, thru a fundrasier & then informing your generous friend of this, so they can help, isn't illegal to my knowledge.

using the tax code to your advantage during a transaction isn't illegal. look at code sec 1031 exchanges, look at the folks turning their vacation homes into primary residences to avoid huge capital gain taxes, happens all the time.

i simply saw someone trying to help someone in need & looking to save some taxes at the same time, there's nothing wrong with that in my eyes. it's a worthy cause.

oh, and i suppose i do funnel alot of money thru my church (and other charities) so they can help others who are in need. there goes my character

You took "character" in the wrong context there. I meant it in the sense that should the IRS examine the transaction they would look at what it essentially was intended to do....therefore the "character" or nature of the transaction....rather than character in the sense of someone's character.

I agree that if the church chose to hold a fundraiser to purchase a wheelchair for a party in need and if someone made a large donation to that fundraiser it probably wouldn't raise any eyebrows. However I do feel that a church would be hesitant to agree if they knew that the intent was to allow someone to directly buy a wheelchair for someone else so that it could be tax deductible.

[tkmarshel]

Fl.
What we ended up doing was donating my personal insurance company ended up picking up 70% of the cost...after many hours of discussion...and argument for the insurance company to pay.

My friend was nice enough to pick up the difference. The difference was a little over $2000. He made a donation to his church, and after the pastor came over and met the little girl (50 pounds) 10 years old, blind, ect...
the pastor agreed to write the check to the wheelchair company for my daughter.
You know what...at this point..I really dont care what uncle sam says..as far as I see it..uncle sam screwed up our life anyway....he permitted a french company to burn petrochemical in our local neighorhood, and only fined them without making them remediate there mess....thanks again..uncle sam.