Donated tickets & FMV

Sara Daly

Hello!  


I am well aware and versed in the FMV of ticketing, but for a recent event, we have had a few people buy extra tickets for us to donate to whoever our office chooses.  My best guess is that those ticket donations are a full donation, no FMV taken out, because the donor is not choosing the person and therefore not receiving any benefits of the ticket.  It would be different if the donor was choosing the people attending and receiving the benefit.


I believe in the past, at a different job, if a sponsor donated money for a table but chose to give the table back to the organization to fill, it was a full donation for them (assuming no recieved benefits besides attendence).  


Does this make sense to anyone else, or does anyone have back up to prove me right or wrong??


Thank you!!

Suesan Daily

Some companies have donated tables back to us, we have always given the full donation to the company and did not include FMV.

JoAnn Strommen

Sara,

I just recently read something about this type of situation on fundsvcs.org.  Finally found the thread. I thought it was interesting - talks about donors intent and expressing before purchasing.


Here's link:
http://listserv.fundsvcs.org/scripts/wa-FUNDSVCS.exe?A2=ind1709&L=FUNDSVCS&D=0&O=A&P=109111


Can be confusing. You may want to talk to your auditor/tax advisor to be sure.

Jen Claudy

At a past org, I had a VP who was extremely knowledgeable about FMV, and what we did was to state the FMV in the ack letter with a recommendation to consult their tax professional.  So in the body of the letter, it would say something like, "thank you for your table sponsorship of $2500" or "thank you for your purchase of 4 tickets at $125 each" and at the bottom in the tax statement it would read something like, "The fair market value of a table is $800.  Please consult your tax professional on the deductibility of your charitable gifts." or "The fair market value of each ticket is $100.  Please consult your tax professional on the deductibility of your charitable gifts."  This puts the determination/math on the donor and if they (or their tax professional) have additional questions, they can call and ask.  Since that job, I recommend providing information without doing any math or stating that this gift is deductible in any way (because depending on their situation or how exactly they gave the gift, they may not be permitted to deduct any part of this gift).