Publication 526
Charitable Contributions
(Revised: 12/2000)

Penalty

You may be liable for a penalty if you overstate the value or adjusted basis of donated property.

20% penalty.   The penalty is 20% of the amount by which you underpaid your tax because of the overstatement, if:

1. The value or adjusted basis claimed on your return is 200% or more of the correct amount, and
2. You underpaid your tax by more than $5,000 because of the overstatement.

40% penalty.   The penalty is 40%, rather than 20%, if:

1. The value or adjusted basis claimed on your return is 400% or more of the correct amount, and
2. You underpaid your tax by more than $5,000 because of the overstatement.

When To Deduct

You can deduct your contributions only in the year you actually make them in cash or other property (or in a succeeding carryover year, as explained under How To Figure Your Deduction When Limits Apply, later). This applies whether you use the cash or an accrual method of accounting.

Time of making contribution.   Usually, you make a contribution at the time of its unconditional delivery.

Checks.   A check that you mail to a charity is considered delivered on the date you mail it.

Credit card.   Contributions charged on your bank credit card are deductible in the year you make the charge.

Pay-by-phone account.   If you use a pay-by-phone account, the date you make a contribution is the date the financial institution pays the amount. This date should be shown on the statement the financial institution sends to you.

Stock certificate.   The gift to a charity of a properly endorsed stock certificate is completed on the date of mailing or other delivery to the charity or to the charity's agent. However, if you give a stock certificate to your agent or to the issuing corporation for transfer to the name of the charity, your gift is not completed until the date the stock is transferred on the books of the corporation.

Promissory note.   If you issue and deliver a promissory note to a charitable organization as a contribution, it is not a contribution until you make the note payments.

Option.   If you grant an option to buy real property at a bargain price to a charitable organization, you cannot take a deduction until the organization exercises the option.

Borrowed funds.   If you make a contribution with borrowed funds, you can deduct the contribution in the year you make it, regardless of when you repay the loan.

Conditional gift.   If your contribution is a conditional gift that depends on a future act or event that may not take place, you cannot take a deduction. But if there is only a negligible chance that the act or event will not take place, you can take a deduction.

If your contribution would be undone by a later act or event, you cannot take a deduction. But if there is only a negligible chance the act or event will take place, you can take a deduction.

Example 1.   You donate cash to a local school board, which is a political subdivision of a state, to help build a school gym. The school board will refund the money to you if it does not collect enough to build the gym. You cannot deduct your gift as a charitable contribution until there is no chance of a refund.

Example 2.   You donate land to a city for as long as the city uses it for a public park. The city does plan to use the land for a park, and there is no chance (or only a negligible chance) of the land being used for any different purpose. You can deduct your charitable contribution.

Limits on Deductions

If your total contributions for the year are 20% or less of your adjusted gross income, you do not need to read this section. The limits discussed here do not apply to you.

The amount of your deduction may be limited to either 20%, 30%, or 50% of your adjusted gross income, depending on the type of property you give and the type of organization you give it to. These limits are described below.

If your contributions are more than any of the limits that apply, see Carryovers under How To Figure Your Deduction When Limits Apply, later.

Out-of-pocket expenses.    Amounts you spend performing services for a charitable organization, which qualify as charitable contributions, are subject to the limit of the organization. For example, the 50% limit applies to amounts you spend on behalf of a church, a 50% limit organization. These amounts are considered a contribution to a qualified organization.

50% Limit

The 50% limit applies to the total of all charitable contributions you make during the year. This means that your deduction for charitable contributions cannot be more than 50% of your adjusted gross income for the year.

Only limit for 50% organizations.   The 50% limit is the only limit that applies to gifts to organizations listed below under 50% Limit Organizations. But there is one exception.

Exception.   The 30% limit also applies to these gifts if they are gifts of capital gain property for which you figure your deduction using fair market value without reduction for appreciation. (See 30% Limit later.)

50% Limit Organizations

You can ask any organization whether it is a 50% limit organization, and most will be able to tell you. Or you may check IRS Publication 78 (described earlier).

Only the following types of organizations are 50% limit organizations.

1. Churches, and conventions or associations of churches.
2. Educational organizations with a regular faculty and curriculum that normally have a regularly enrolled student body attending classes on site.
3. Hospitals and certain medical research organizations associated with these hospitals.
4. Organizations that are operated only to receive, hold, invest, and administer property and to make expenditures to or for the benefit of state and municipal colleges and universities and that normally receive substantial support from the United States or any state or their political subdivisions, or from the general public.
5. The United States or any state, the District of Columbia, a U.S. possession (including Puerto Rico), a political subdivision of a state or U.S. possession, or an Indian tribal government or any of its subdivisions that perform substantial government functions.
6. Corporations, trusts, or community chests, funds, or foundations organized and operated only for charitable, religious, educational, scientific, or literary purposes, or to prevent cruelty to children or animals, or to foster certain national or international amateur sports competition. These organizations must be publicly supported, which means they normally must receive a substantial part of their support, other than income from their exempt activities, from direct or indirect contributions from the general public or from governmental units.
7. Organizations that may not qualify as publicly supported under (6) but that meet other tests showing they respond to the needs of the general public, not a limited number of donors or other persons. They must normally receive more than one-third of their support either from organizations described in (1) through (6), or from persons other than disqualified persons.
8. Most organizations operated or controlled by, and operated for the benefit of, those organizations described in (1) through (7).
9. Private operating foundations.
10. Private nonoperating foundations that make qualifying distributions of 100% of contributions within 2½ months following the year they receive the contribution. A deduction for charitable contributions to any of these private nonoperating foundations must be supported by evidence from the foundation confirming that it made the qualifying distributions timely. Attach a copy of this supporting data to your tax return.
11. A private foundation whose contributions are pooled into a common fund, if the foundation would be described in (8) above but for the right of substantial contributors to name the public charities that receive contributions from the fund. The foundation must distribute the common fund's income within 2½ months following the tax year in which it was realized and must distribute the corpus not later than 1 year after the donor's death (or after the death of the donor's surviving spouse if the spouse can name the recipients of the corpus).

30% Limit

The 30% limit applies to the following gifts.

• Gifts of capital gain property to 50% limit organizations. (For other gifts of capital gain property, see 20% Limit, next.) However, the 30% limit does not apply when you choose to reduce the fair market value of the property by the amount that would have been long-term capital gain if you had sold the property. Instead, only the 50% limit applies. See Capital Gain Property, earlier, and Capital gain property election under How To Figure Your Deduction When Limits Apply, later.
• Gifts (other than gifts of capital gain property - see 20% Limit, next) for the use of any organization.
• Gifts (other than gifts of capital gain property - see 20% Limit, next) to all qualified organizations other than 50% limit organizations. This includes gifts to veterans' organizations, fraternal societies, nonprofit cemeteries, and certain private nonoperating foundations.

Student living with you.    Amounts you spend on behalf of a student living with you are subject to the 30% limit. These amounts are considered a contribution for the use of a qualified organization.

20% Limit

The 20% limit applies to all gifts of capital gain property to or for the use of qualified organizations (other than gifts of capital gain property to 50% limit organizations).

Table 3 - Filled in worksheet for deduction computation

How To Figure
Your Deduction
When Limits Apply

If your contributions are subject to more than one of the limits just discussed, you can deduct them as follows.

1. Contributions subject only to the 50% limit, up to 50% of your adjusted gross income.
2. Contributions subject to the 30% limit, up to the lesser of:
   1. 30% of adjusted gross income, or
   2. 50% of adjusted gross income minus your contributions to 50% limit organizations, including contributions of capital gain property subject to the 30% limit.
3. Contributions of capital gain property subject to the 30% limit, up to the lesser of:
   1. 30% of adjusted gross income, or
   2. 50% of adjusted gross income minus your other contributions to 50% limit organizations.
4. Contributions subject to the 20% limit, up to the lesser of:
   1. 20% of adjusted gross income,
   2. 30% of adjusted gross income minus your contributions subject to the 30% limit,
   3. 30% of adjusted gross income minus your contributions of capital gain property subject to the 30% limit, or
   4. 50% of adjusted gross income minus the total of your contributions to 50% limit organizations and your contributions subject to the 30% limit.

If more than one of the limits described above limit your deduction for charitable contributions, you may want to use the worksheet in Table 4 on page 16 to figure your deduction and your carryover.

Example.   Your adjusted gross income is $50,000. During the year, you gave your church $2,000 cash and land with a fair market value of $28,000 and a basis of $22,000. You held the land for investment purposes. You do not choose to reduce the fair market value of the land by the appreciation in value. You also gave $5,000 cash to a private foundation to which the 30% limit applies.

The $2,000 cash donated to the church is considered first and is fully deductible. Your contribution to the private foundation is considered next. Because your contributions to 50% limit organizations ($2,000 + $28,000) are more than $25,000 (50% of $50,000), your contribution to the private foundation is not deductible for the year. It can be carried over to later years. See Carryovers, later. The gift of land is considered next. Your deduction for the land is limited to $15,000 (30% × $50,000). The unused part of the gift of land ($13,000) can be carried over. For this year, your deduction is limited to $17,000 ($2,000 + $15,000).

A Filled-In Worksheet for Limit on Deductions in Table 3 on page 11 shows this computation in detail.

Capital gain property election.    You may choose the 50% limit for gifts of capital gain property to 50% limit organizations instead of the 30% limit that would otherwise apply. If you make this choice, you must reduce the fair market value of the property contributed by the appreciation in value that would have been long-term capital gain if the property had been sold.

This choice applies to all capital gain property contributed to 50% limit organizations during a tax year. It also applies to carryovers of this kind of contribution from an earlier tax year. For details, see Carryover of capital gain property, later.

You must make the choice on your original return or on an amended return filed by the due date for filing the original return.

Example.   In the previous example, if you choose to have the 50% limit apply to the land (the 30% capital gain property) given to your church, you must reduce the fair market value of the property by the appreciation in value. Therefore, the amount of your charitable contribution for the land would be its basis to you of $22,000. You add this amount to the $2,000 cash contributed to the church. You can now deduct $1,000 of the amount donated to the private foundation because your contributions to 50% limit organizations ($2,000 + $22,000) are $1,000 less than the 50%-of-adjusted-gross-income limit. Your total deduction for the year is $25,000 ($2,000 cash to your church, $22,000 for property donated to your church, and $1,000 cash to the private foundation). You can carry over to later years the part of your contribution to the private foundation that you could not deduct ($4,000).

Carryovers

You can carry over your contributions that you are not able to deduct in the current year because they exceed your adjusted-gross-income limits. You can deduct the excess in each of the next 5 years until it is used up, but not beyond that time. Your total contributions deduction for the year to which you carry your contributions cannot exceed 50% of your adjusted gross income for that year.

Contributions you carry over are subject to the same percentage limits in the year to which they are carried. For example, contributions subject to the 20% limit in the year in which they are made are 20% limit contributions in the year to which they are carried.

For each category of contributions, you deduct carryover contributions only after deducting all allowable contributions in that category for the current year. If you have carryovers from 2 or more prior years, use the carryover from the earlier year first.

Example 1.   Last year, you contributed $11,000 to a 50% limit organization, but because of the limit you deducted only $10,000 and carried over $1,000 to this year. This year your adjusted gross income is $20,000 and you contribute $9,500 to a 50% limit organization. You can deduct $10,000 (50% of $20,000) this year. Consequently, in addition to your contribution of $9,500 for this year, you can deduct $500 of your carryover contribution from last year. You can carry over the $500 balance of your carryover from last year to next year.

Example 2.   This year your adjusted gross income is $24,000. You make cash contributions of $6,000 to which the 50% limit applies and $3,000 to which the 30% limit applies. You have a contribution carryover from last year of $5,000 for capital gain property contributed to a 50% limit organization and subject to the 30% limit for contributions of capital gain property.

Your deduction is $12,000 ($6,000 + $1,000 + $5,000). You carry over the $2,000 balance of your 30% limit contributions for this year to next year.

Carryover of capital gain property.   If you carry over contributions of capital gain property subject to the 30% limit and you choose in the next year to use the 50% limit and take appreciation into account, you must refigure the carryover. You reduce the fair market value of the property by the appreciation and reduce that result by the amount actually deducted in the previous year.

Example.   Last year your adjusted gross income was $50,000 and you contributed capital gain property valued at $27,000 to a 50% limit organization and did not choose to use the 50% limit. Your basis in the property was $20,000. Your deduction was limited to $15,000 (30% of $50,000), and you carried over $12,000. This year your adjusted gross income is $60,000 and you contribute capital gain property valued at $25,000 to a 50% limit organization. Your basis in the property is $24,000 and you choose to use the 50% limit. You must refigure your carryover as if you had taken appreciation into account last year as well as this year. Because the amount of your contribution last year would have been $20,000 (the property's basis) instead of the $15,000 you actually deducted, your refigured carryover is $5,000 ($20,000 - $15,000). Your total deduction this year is $29,000 (your $24,000 current contribution plus your $5,000 carryover).

Additional rules for carryovers.   Special rules exist for computing carryovers if you:

• Were married in some years but not others,
• Had different spouses in different years,
• Change from a separate return to a joint return in a later year,
• Change from a joint return to a separate return in a later year,
• Had a net operating loss,
• Claim the standard deduction in a carryover year, or
• Become a widow or widower.

Because of their complexity and the limited number of taxpayers to whom these additional rules apply, they are not discussed in this publication. If you need to compute a carryover and you are in one of these situations, you may want to consult with a tax practitioner.

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