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Timeshare Use Sold at Charity Auction
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Question: I know that, in general, there is no tax deduction when use
of a time-share is donated to charity. Is always the case?
In particular... if there is a charity auction, you donate
one-week's stay in your timeshare as an item to be auctioned
off, the week's stay goes up for bid, the winning bidder
pays $500 to the charity.
I know one of the justifications for not giving a deduction
for time share use donations is you can't presume a value
for that use. But here we have a clear and established
value. Is there still no deductions? Any ideas ?
Answer: You can't get a deduction for something that really doesn't
cost you anything. Ok, it costs you the rent you could have
gotten, but that would have been taxable. So you aren't
considered to have given up anything for tax purposes.
If you have actual out-of-pocket expenses related to the
timeshare, you might be able to deduct the pro-rata portion
of those. But that's probably about it.
There is no deduction because you are only giving a PARTIAL
interest in the property, ie: the right to use it for a
week.
Now, if you gave your ENTIRE right, title and interest in
the timeshare ownership per se, you might have something to
talk about, deduction wise.
Comment:
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