Donate to our school auction! 100% tax deductible

[jver]

On March 13, Warner Avenue Elementary School, a public school in the Los Angeles area, will hold its annual Spring Auction. This is our largest and most popular event of the year. I'm writing to solicit a donation of your timeshare. If you're not using your time share this year or next, why not get a tax write off. Donations are 100% tax deductible.

I hope you'll be able to donate to our school.

Thanks so much in advance for your help with our event! Please let me know if you have any questions (jverny@yahoo.com). Again, thank you!!!

[T. R. Oglodyte]

Originally Posted by jver

On March 13, Warner Avenue Elementary School, a public school in the Los Angeles area, will hold its annual Spring Auction. This is our largest and most popular event of the year. I'm writing to solicit a donation of your timeshare. If you're not using your time share this year or next, why not get a tax write off. Donations are 100% tax deductible.

I hope you'll be able to donate to our school.

Thanks so much in advance for your help with our event! Please let me know if you have any questions (jverny@yahoo.com). Again, thank you!!!

The statement above - that donation of the use of your timeshare is tax deductible - is totally incorrect.

There is no deduction for donating the use of a timeshare. The only time a deduction can ever be taken for personal property is if the ownership of the property is donated, and then the amount of the deduction will be the fair market value; i.e., what the timeshare is worth on the resale market at the time of the donation (which is zero for many timeshares in the current market) and not the purchase price.

****

It's the same as if you owned a pressure washer and you spent a day cleaning the walls and sidewalks at the school; you can't then take a deduction for what it would have cost to rent a pressure washer to do the same job. The IRS doesn't let you work the tax system help defray the your cost to purchase items for personal use.

[Spence]

Discussed annually, at least....

Originally Posted by IRS Publication 526 (2009)

Partial Interest in Property

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

Right to use property.

A contribution of the right to use property is a contribution of less than your entire interest in that property and is not deductible.

Example 1. You own a 10-story office building and donate rent-free use of the top floor to a charitable organization. Since you still own the building, you have contributed a partial interest in the property and cannot take a deduction for the contribution.

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.