Talk:Charitable contribution deductions in the United States

in case someone gets to it before i figure out how to, please feel free to create one of those cute "table of contents" boxes. it may make navigation less tedious, especially since i still have a bit more to add -- User:beefalo (14 april 04)

Took care of it :) -- User:Pgunn (15 April 2004)

Danke, mon amie :P~ xoxoixoxox (15 April 04)

Just for reference at this time, the following is the relevant statutory definition:

170(c) CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTION DEFINED. --For purposes of this section, the term "charitable contribution" means a contribution or gift to or for the use of --
 * (1) A State, a possession of the United States, or any political subdivision of any of the foregoing, or the United States or the District of Columbia, but only if the contribution or gift is made for exclusively public purposes.
 * (2) A corporation, trust, or community chest, fund, or foundation --
 * (A) created or organized in the United States or in any possession thereof, or under the law of the United States, any State, the District of Columbia, or any possession of the United States;
 * (B) organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or educational purposes, or to foster national or international amateur sports competition (but only if no part of its activities involve the provision of athletic facilities or equipment), or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals;
 * (C) no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual; and
 * (D) which is not disqualified for tax exemption under section 501(c)(3) by reason of attempting to influence legislation, and which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.
 * A contribution or gift by a corporation to a trust, chest, fund, or foundation shall be deductible by reason of this paragraph only if it is to be used within the United States or any of its possessions exclusively for purposes specified in subparagraph (B). Rules similar to the rules of section 501(j) shall apply for purposes of this paragraph.
 * (3) A post or organization of war veterans, or an auxiliary unit or society of, or trust or foundation for, any such post or organization --
 * (A) organized in the United States or any of its possessions, and
 * (B) no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.
 * (4) In the case of a contribution or gift by an individual, a domestic fraternal society, order, or association, operating under the lodge system, but only if such contribution or gift is to be used exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or educational purposes, or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals.
 * (5) A cemetery company owned and operated exclusively for the benefit of its members, or any corporation chartered solely for burial purposes as a cemetery corporation and not permitted by its charter to engage in any business not necessarily incident to that purpose, if such company or corporation is not operated for profit and no part of the net earnings of such company or corporation inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.

For purposes of this section, the term "charitable contribution" also means an amount treated under subsection (g) as paid for the use of an organization described in paragraph (2), (3), or (4).

See. Famspear 15:11, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm assuming by ordinary gain we're refering to ordinary income, so I included the link. If this is correct, do we need a Redirect? Have Gun, Will Travel 02:21, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Article name v. content
At the moment this article is entirely about US federal tax and how it applies to charitable contributions in the US. While the name implies a broader subject and is linked to in a number of articles entirely inappropriately.

I suggest either:
 * a)Extending the article to be broader (not something I have the expertize to do except in the most general sense) and pushing the current content under a subheading.
 * b)Renaming the current article to something like US Federal Tax Section 170(c) (or perhaps something more descriptive) and then forwarding the current article to a more general article like donation.

Because I don't really feel capable of expanding the text well I'm more in favor of option b. Does anyone else have ideas or opinions on this? -- SiobhanHansa 21:51, 12 October 2008 (UTC)

Criticisms
There has been some skepticism towards the veracity of many charitable organizations as being large tax shelters. I myself am not an attorney or a tax expert, however I do know many personal anecdotes of charities that have been created for the sole purpose of funneling money to relatives and away from the government. Recently President Obama spoke about lowering the amount of deductions that can be made. It would be nice to see the article expanded by someone who knows more about this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.204.188.131 (talk) 23:08, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

Page focus issue and move
There is a real problem with this article. It purports to be about "charitable contributions", but in fact as it stands, it's an article on charitable contribution deductions in United States tax law. (Both are notable topics)

There are two possible fixes:
 * 1) Radically rewrite the article to be on charitable contributions generally - this means globalize, remove a lot of US-centric detail and examples, etc.
 * 2) Accept this has actually become (by accident or design) an article on charitable contribution deductions in United States tax law. Mopve it to that page. Then write a more general article on charitable contributions covering the topic generally, with short sections on contributions in many countries.

The first solution would mean deleting some good reference material. The second preserves all content. While some users may feel "It should be on charitable contributions so move it back there", I urge them to look at the content and accept that for whatever reason that's not what it has become an article on. If an article on charitable contributions (generally) is needed, then in any case it needs writing from scratch - this isn't it.

FT2 (Talk 13:45, 6 January 2011 (UTC)

Accounting ≠ math – not even ≈
Hope this helps.--Oblio4 (talk) 20:26, 18 March 2021 (UTC)