target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_61108634-b476-5d86-8537-8a5821c8955e">159 Id. at 14.160 160 Id.
161 161 Id.
162 162 Lindsey, supra note 131, at 1092.
163 163 Duquette, supra note 131, at 577.
CHAPTER TWO Fundamental Concepts
§ 2.1 Definition of Gift (a) Perspectives (b) Availability of Charitable Deduction (c) Quid Pro Quo Situations (d) Incidental Benefits (e) Requirement of Transfer of Value (f) Requirement of Donor Ownership (g) Donor Recognition (h) Anticipatory Income Assignments (i) Rebate Plans (j) Dividends Paid to Charitable Organizations (k) Requirement of Completion (l) Employee Hardship Programs (m) Mandatory Payments
§ 2.3 Definition of Charitable Organization (a) Overview of Law (b) Charitable Organizations—Criteria
§ 2.4 Public Charities and Private Foundations (a) Public Charitable Organizations (b) Other Nonprivate Foundations (c) Private Foundations
§ 2.5 Unrelated Business Law (a) Overview of Law (b) Definition of Trade orBusiness (c) Regularly Carried On Rule (d) Concept of Unrelated Business (e) Unrelated Business Taxable Income (f) Exempted Activities (g) Exempted Income (h) Bucketing Rule
§ 2.6 Factors Affecting Income Tax Deductibility of Charitable Gifts
§ 2.7 Charitable Organizations Listing Reliance Rules (a) IRS's Searchable Databases (b) Charitable Status Reliance Rules (c) Safe Harbor Rules as to Public Charity Status
§ 2.1 DEFINITION OF GIFT
The basic federal law on the subject of the tax aspects of charitable giving is contained in the Internal Revenue Code and in the interpretations of that body of law found in court opinions, Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations, and IRS public rulings. (Technically not law, pronouncements by the IRS on this subject may be found in private letter rulings, technical advice memoranda, and chief counsel advice memoranda.) This body of law is specific on various aspects of the law of charitable giving, as the pages of this book attest.
Despite this extensive treatment of these aspects of the law, there is a dramatic omission in the rules concerning charitable giving: The federal law is scarce as to the meaning of the word gift or contribution.1 This is highly significant, because there obviously must be a gift before there can be a charitable gift (and one or more charitable contribution deductions).
(a) Perspectives
There are two ways to view the concept of a charitable gift: from the standpoint of the contributor and from the standpoint of the recipient charity.
Contributor's Standpoint. Integral to the concept of the charitable contribution deduction, then, is the fundamental requirement that money or property transferred to a charitable organization be transferred pursuant to a transaction that constitutes a gift.2 Just because money is paid or property is transferred to a charitable, educational, religious, or like organization does not necessarily mean that the payment or transfer is a gift. Consequently, when a university's tuition, a hospital's health care fee, or an association's dues are paid, there is no gift, and thus there is not a charitable deduction for the payment.3 These are situations in which the absence of a gift is because the payor received a material quid pro quo in exchange for the payment.4
Certainly, there is some law, most of it generated by the federal courts, as to what constitutes a gift. Basically, the meaning of the word gift has two elements: It is a transfer that is voluntary and is motivated by something other than consideration.
