Designated Donations

by Bryan Kelly
(Maricopa, AZ, USA)

My Church considers all designated donations to be non-deductible. I wrote two checks during 2010 to my church with a word in the memo area: "Honduras" and another "Ukraine". My church was sending a Mission Group to each - the pastor went on both Mission Trips. We are a pretty small church and the treasurer said:

"As long as I can remember, specific giving is not deductible, even in a general way. However I am not a tax expert or an accountant. I only know how it has been explained to me in order to meet our requirements. How would you like to proceed?”

Can you help with this question? Can you give me a specific Tax Code that addresses this?

vickey's reply

Yes. Most designated donations are tax deductible. There are certain type of designated donations that are not deductible such as donations designated to a certain individual.

IRS Pub 526 tells what is deductible and what is not.

IRS Pub 1771 is helpful as well.

Tell them to check my site out also :-)

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