Charitable Gifts to Supporting Organizations
February 28, 2014
Authored by: Stephanie Moll and Keith Kehrer
With research and drafting assistance provided by our extern from Washington University School of Law, Rachael Lynch.
As we discussed in our prior post, Review of Income Tax Deduction Rules for Charitable Gifts, an income tax deduction up to fifty percent (50%) of the taxpayer’s adjusted gross income is allowed for gifts to public charities of non-capital gain property and up to thirty percent (30%) for gifts of capital gain property. These same contribution limits apply to gifts to supporting organizations.
What is a supporting organization? Supporting organizations are described in Section 509(a)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code as charities that carry out their exempt purposes by supporting other public charities. A supporting organization generally warrants public charity status because it has a relationship with its supported organization sufficient to ensure that the supported organization is effectively supervising or paying particular attention to the operations of the supporting