Donation to Men's Breakfast

by Janice
(Twin Falls, ID)

Are contributions to a men's breakfast to off-set the costs deductible and should they be included on statements?

To give some background: the men of the church met monthly and everyone brought food to share. It was then decided that one person would buy the food, and people could put money in a fund to reimburse the individual (check made out to the church).

So my question is: Does the breakfast qualify as a "personal benefit" if the individual who made the donation attended the breakfast, or is the full amount deductible?

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Feb 01, 2017
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by: Anonymous

I've never seen that question posed before.

It is my understanding that if an individual gives a donation, it is considered tax deductible (unless he/she is reimbursed for it if he/she bought the supplies/product-in which case it is then income to them); however, it needs to be documented on an envelope with the donation inside it so that it can be valid.

This is in case the church is audited for those amounts in the future. I keep the envelopes with all the financial records and reports in storage.

At the moment, I don't remember how long you are required to keep those records (as well as minutes of meetings with the Board and yearly membership meetings); you can research that to be sure and to be in compliance with the law. I hope this helps. God bless.

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