Verifying tax-deductible contributions – don’t screw it up!

Did you know that communion wine qualifies as “goods or services received” as far as the IRS is concerned? What about “admission to a religious ceremony?” If you are a religious 501(c)(3), the IRS considers admission to a religious ceremony or the receiving of wine or bread in the religious ceremony to be a good or service received. That was news to me! Fortunately, it also considers these to be benefits that don’t reduce the amount of the gift that is tax deductible, but you must include the words that “only intangible religious benefits were received” or you invalidate your donor’s tax deduction. (And, you don’t have to describe what those intangible religious benefits were).

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