501(3)(c) to donators for trophy party
The good news is that your parent organization is tax exempt and your local organization might be. The national organization even has guidelines and even more details.  Regarding donations they have this to say: Please note: The law requires charities to furnish disclosure   statements to donors for such quid pro quo donations in excess of   $75.00.  A quid pro quo contribution is a payment made partly as a   contribution and partly for goods or services provided to the donor by   the charity. An example of a quid pro quo contribution is when the   donor gives a charity $100.00 in consideration for a concert ticket   valued at $40.00. In this example, $60.00 would be deductible because   the donor’s payment (quid pro quo contribution) exceeds $75.00. The   disclosure statement must be furnished even though the deductible   amount does not exceed $75.00. Regarding taxes: Leagues included under our group exemption number are responsible for   their own tax filings with the I.R.S. Leagues must file Form 990 EZ   with Schedule A if gross receipts are in excess of $50,000 but less   than $200,000. Similar rules also apply to other youth organizations such as scouts, swim teams, or other youth sports.
The $20k limit seems to be (from another answer) the threshold for GoFundMe to report the campaign. However, such a report does not change the taxability of the income. The income is either taxable or non-taxable regardless of whether the amount is $19,999 or $20,001. This is a common misconception, commonly seen when people think that income or gambling winnings are not taxable below $600, when in reality $600 is the threshold for issuing a Form 1099. Given that, it would be foolish to close a wildly successful (*) GoFundMe campaign, because closing the campaign won't change the taxability of the income. But it will probably cut off the continued donations you may have received. With the amount of money at stake, you should spend the couple hundred dollars to hire a CPA to look at your specific situation. Your uncle's comments are not specific to your situation at best, incorrect at worst, so don't hire him. (*) I don't know what the median GoFundMe campaign raises, but I strongly suspect it's well below the $20k/200 donor reporting limit. Just because you have one campaign that's gone viral enough to approach that limit, doesn't mean if you close that one and start a new one, that it will go viral again, especially if it's under a new username. No, it is not a taxable event. You will not have to pay tax on the $500 in this scenario. See the IRS publication 590-A: To recharacterize a contribution, you generally must have the contribution transferred from the first IRA (the one to which it was made) to the second IRA in a trustee-to-trustee transfer. If the transfer is made by the due date (including extensions) for your tax return for the tax year during which the contribution was made, you can elect to treat the contribution as having been originally made to the second IRA instead of to the first IRA. If you recharacterize your contribution, you must do all three of the following. Include in the transfer any net income allocable to the contribution. If there was a loss, the net income you must transfer may be a negative amount. Report the recharacterization on your tax return for the year during which the contribution was made. Treat the contribution as having been made to the second IRA on the date that it was actually made to the first IRA. "There is no simple rule like ""you can/can't spend more/less than $X per person."" Instead there is a reasonableness test. There is such a thing as an audit of just your travel and entertainment expenses - I know because I've had one for my Ontario corporation. I've deducted company Christmas parties, and going-away dinners for departing employees, without incident. (You know, I presume, about only deducting half of certain expenses?) If the reason for the entertainment is to acquire or keep either employees or clients, there shouldn't be a problem.  Things are slightly trickier with very small companies. Microsoft can send an entire team to Hawaii, with their families, as a reward at the end of a tough project, and deduct it. You probably can't send yourself as a similar reward. If your party is strictly for your neighbours, personal friends, and close family, with no clients, potential clients, employees, potential employees, suppliers, or potential suppliers in attendance, then no, don't deduct it. If you imagine yourself telling an auditor why you threw the party and why the business funded it, you'll know whether it's ok to do it or not." "Standard federal candidate political donations are limited to $2700 per candidate per election.  The primary and general elections are different elections for this purpose.   Source:  http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/citizens.shtml There are no tax implications to a campaign contribution.  Even if you contribute to the campaign of someone to whom you have made gifts now or in the past, that does count.  You are contributing to the campaign, not the person.  Such money has to be used for campaign purposes.  The candidate could be prosecuted (for something like embezzlement) for using the funds for something else.   Example source:  http://www.rothcpa.com/archives/006985.php Congress itself ordered the IRS away from direct political contributions by enacting what is now Code Section 2501(c)(4) in 1975, which prohibits gift tax assessments on ""political organizations,"" defined by Section 527 as ""...a party, committee, association, fund, or other organization (whether or not incorporated) organized and operated primarily for the purpose of directly or indirectly accepting contributions or making expenditures, or both, for an exempt function."" There is no way to donate to a candidate's campaign in a tax deductible way.  The only tax-deductible money in politics is money given to a charity that the charity then uses to fund their own campaigning activities like advertisements or get out the vote calls.  Such spending might supplant some candidate spending, but it can't be given to the candidate's campaign to spend.  In fact, such spending can't be coordinated with the campaign at all.   Example source:  http://blogs.hrblock.com/2013/03/04/how-to-capture-political-contributions-on-your-tax-return/ If you wrote a check for a presidential candidate or even a local mayoral candidate, you’re out of luck when it comes to deductions. Contributions given directly to campaigns and parties are absolutely non-deductible. Note that it spends a lot of time explaining how you can deduct contributions to independent charities that happen to do campaign work." Thanks for clarifying.  Also, I know Goodwill, and most likely the others, aren't technically one entity, but rather many entities under the same operating name, so there are many CEOs that work for Goodwill.  Maybe there is one that heads the whole thing, but I wonder how much is going to all the C-levels? No, it doesn't work like this. Your charitable contribution is limited to the FMV. In your scenario your charitable contribution is limited by the FMV, i.e.: you can only deduct the worth of the stocks. It would be to your advantage to sell the stocks and donate cash. Had your stock appreciated, you may be required to either deduct the appreciation amount from the donation deduction or pay capital gains tax (increasing your basis to the FMV), depending on the nature of your donation. In many cases - you may be able to deduct the whole value of the appreciated stock without paying capital gains. Read the link below for more details and exceptions. In this scenario, it is probably more beneficial to donate the stock (even if required to pay the capital gains tax), instead of selling and donating cash (which will always trigger the capital gains tax). Exceptions.   However, in certain situations, you must reduce the fair   market value by any amount that would have been long-term capital gain   if you had sold the property for its fair market value. Generally,   this means reducing the fair market value to the property's cost or   other basis. You must do this if: The property (other than qualified appreciated stock) is contributed to certain private nonoperating foundations, You choose the 50% limit instead of the special 30% limit for capital gain property, discussed later, The contributed property is intellectual property (as defined earlier under Patents and Other Intellectual Property ), The contributed property is certain taxidermy property as explained earlier, or The contributed property is tangible personal property (defined earlier) that: Is put to an unrelated use (defined later) by the charity, or Has a claimed value of more than $5,000 and is sold, traded, or otherwise disposed of by the qualified organization during the year   in which you made the contribution, and the qualified organization has   not made the required certification of exempt use (such as on Form   8282, Donee Information Return, Part IV). See also Recapture if no   exempt use , later. See more here. "From the poster's description of this activity, it doesn't look like he is engaged in a business, so Schedule C would not be appropriate. The first paragraph of the IRS Instructions for Schedule C is as follows: Use Schedule C (Form 1040) to report income or loss from a business   you operated or a profession you practiced as a sole proprietor. An   activity qualifies as a business if your primary purpose for engaging   in the activity is for income or profit and you are involved in the   activity with continuity and regularity. For example, a sporadic   activity or a hobby does not qualify as a business. To report income   from a nonbusiness activity, see the instructions for Form 1040, line   21, or Form 1040NR, line 21. What the poster is doing is acting as a nominee or agent for his members. For instance, if I give you $3.00 and ask you to go into Starbucks and buy me a pumpkin-spice latte, you do not have income or receipts of $3.00, and you are not engaged in a business. The amounts that the poster's members are forwarding him are like this.  Money that the poster receives for his trouble should be reported as nonbusiness income on Line 21 of Form 1040, in accordance with the instructions quoted above and the instructions for Form 1040. Finally, it should be noted that the poster cannot take deductions or losses relating to this activity. So he can't deduct any expenses of organizing the group buy on his tax return. Of course, this would not be the case if the group buy really is the poster's business and not just a ""hobby."" Of course, it goes without saying that the poster should document all of this activity with receipts, contemporaneous emails (and if available, contracts) - as well as anything else that could possibly be relevant to proving the nature of this activity in the event of an audit." "This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-bodies-brokers/) reduced by 98%. (I'm a bot) ***** &gt; Few state laws provide any oversight whatsoever, and almost anyone, regardless of expertise, can dissect and sell human body parts.  &gt; &amp;quot;There is a big market for dead bodies,&amp;quot; said Ray Madoff, a Boston College Law School professor who studies how U.S. laws treat the dead. &amp;quot;We know very little about who is acquiring these bodies and what they are doing with them.""  &gt; Generally, a broker can sell a donated human body for about $3,000 to $5,000, though prices sometimes top $10,000.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/78gdhw/each_year_thousands_of_americans_donate_their/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~234179 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **body**^#1 **broker**^#2 **part**^#3 **state**^#4 **funeral**^#5" I'm not a lawyer and someone more knowledgeable than I will probably respond to this inquiry.  I worked with nonprofits for years however.  My suggestion would be that the Board would have a resolution allowing the Director to approve any contract below a certain dollar amount. "A slower approach: keep any discussion of income out of it to begin with. Remaining within discretionary income Z, just go back to the charities your SO has proposed, and say that you would like to set up monthly donations. You would also like to donate a similar amount to charities of your choice. Say what bills your proposed contribution is less than. Once your SO has got used to the idea of charitable giving as a regular expenditure, and has got back the grateful charity newsletters and whatnot, then address the issue of how much you ""should"" give by comparison with income. Whenever you do consider income, your SO doesn't really seem to want anything to do with this. So I'd approach it as seeking agreement. Eric Lippert has a more long-term approach for seeking involvement. So, present the following information however seems best, probably with a pre-amble establishing that you both want to support charities, so the question is how much and how to get it done. ""We earn U. This means we are fortunate enough to be in the top V% of households. Our income breaks down as: This being the case, we can afford to be generous. I would like us to give to the charities that we each care about, to the extent of N. Charitable giving is important to me because ... The amount I suggest we give is less than what we spend annually on ..., and I chose that amount because ... "" Depending on the tax situation, you may then have to explain how N from gross income translates to an actual amount available to give to charity. Or charitable giving might be tax free. If the N you want is greater than Z-A then it might be wise to suggest a smaller amount, but ask that you both make a plan in increase it in a year or whatever. Similarly if N strikes your SO as a scarily large number then I would think the best thing to do is just reduce it so that at least you start somewhere. If Y is low or zero, and your SO suffers from anxiety about financial security, then increasing Y at the same time might be a good way to offset the fear of N. When stating income you might want to exclude any income from savings/investments. Although legally it's income your SO might see it psychologically as capital gains and hence touching it would endanger your savings/investment/pension returns. Even though it's all fungible." No. You should only donate appreciated stock. If you own a stock at a loss, you can only deduct the FMV (fair market value) when you donate. Instead, you should sell it, take the loss on your taxes, and donate the cash. If you have a software company, that can produce a box of software for $5, but the box sells for $100. (You have to make a profit and cover development costs) But then you give these boxes to charity, that is a cost of $5 each and a tax rebate of $100 x 40% = $40. A profit of $35 per donation of $5.  Note: You can only do this if you have taxable profit to offset it against. Assuming that what you want to do is to counter the capital gains tax on the short term and long term gains, and that doing so will avoid any underpayment penalties, it is relatively simple to do so. Figure out the tax on the capital gains by determining your tax bracket. Lets say 25% short term and 15% long term or (0.25x7K) + (0.15*8K) or $2950.  If you donate to charities an additional amount of items or money to cover that tax. So taking the numbers in step 1 divide by the marginal tax rate $2950/0.25 or $11,800.  Money is easier to donate because you will be contributing enough value that the IRS may ask for proof of the value, and that proof needs to be gathered either before the donation is given or at the time the donation is given. Also don't wait until December 31st, if you miss the deadline and the donation is counted for next year, the purpose will have been missed. Now if the goal is just to avoid the underpayment penalty, you have two other options.  The safe harbor is the easiest of the two to determine. Look at last years tax form. Look for the amount of tax you paid last year. Not what was withheld, but what you actually paid. If all your withholding this year, is greater than 110% of the total tax from last year, you have reached the safe harbor. There are a few more twists depending on AGI Special rules for farmers, fishermen, and higher income taxpayers.   If at least two-thirds of your gross income for tax year 2014 or 2015   is from farming or fishing, substitute 662/3% for 90% in (2a) under   the General rule, earlier. If your AGI for 2014 was more than $150,000   ($75,000 if your filing status for 2015 is married filing a separate   return), substitute 110% for 100% in (2b) under General rule ,   earlier. See Figure 4-A and Publication 505, chapter 2 for more   information. I see two ways you can handle this. Use the gifts for the purpose of creating more free software.  This is fundraising, and your cause is writing free software.  The language is a little tricky from the PayPal Donate button (emphasis mine): This button is intended for fundraising. If you are not raising money   for a cause, please choose another option. Nonprofits must verify   their status to withdraw donations they receive. Users that are not   verified nonprofits must demonstrate how their donations will be used,   once they raise more than $10,000 USD. You don't have to be a nonprofit; they are only requiring existing nonprofits to verify their status.  You don't even have to account for the donations if they are below $10,000. Give out your PayPal email address and instruct the gift-givers to simply send you money through their PayPal interface.  They can mark it as a gift when they send the money. I think option one is how the various bloggers and other personal users are justifiying their collection of donations, and I think its a valid use of the PayPal Donate button. "Donations, particularly those in the context of you providing a free service (software, libraries, etc.) are a notable grey area in tax code. Simply naming a button ""Donate"" doesn't necessarily classify the money transfer as a ""gift"". The IRS can decide that it's money you're being paid to continue your excellent work/service, making it taxable income (unless you're a registered non-profit organization). In the instance of Patreon, and many other crowd-funding services, you're providing a certain level of ""service"" for each tier of donations (such as early access or something, I'm not sure what you're offering), which means they're receiving consideration for their donations, which most likely makes it fall into taxable income (again, unless you're a registered non-profit organization). State tax law is even more convoluted, and you should consult your tax professional for clarification on your specific situation."