Donating points?

[Dividends]

Has anyone donated points to an organization and got a charity receipt?

I mean its nice to rent at 11$ but if you can rent at rack for charity receipt 380$ = 48pp - 9pts value akv.

Thoughts on this imaginative idea?

Would this be considered commercial by the mouse?

 

[disneynutz]

You would have to donate a reservation and determining the value might be a problem.

 

[Dividends]

Disney/dvd/dcv send you the comparison chart listing rack rates.

So if they have it listed 380 a night at akv. And you get it at adventure season value 9 pts.

You're charging 48$pt
100 pts = 4800 tax credit.
2000pts = 96000 tax credit.

Got carried away... Found the CRA link for "in kind gifting " to charities seems like a "reasonable" idea.

[aww cra tax credit calculator says 100k donated =29k federal and 11k provincial, 40k total]

So you'd be making $20 a pt, unless you can get the rack rate up...

WOULD this be considered commercial business by the mouse?

 

[chalee94]

you know, it actually is against the IRS rules to deduct anything at all for donating use of your timeshare.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p526.pdf

Quote:
From page 9 under "right to use" property:

Right to use property. A contribution of the right to use property is a contribution of less than your entire interest in that property and is not deductible.

Example 2. Mandy White owns a vacation home at the beach that she sometimes rents to others. For a fund-raising auction at her church, she donated the right to use the vacation home for 1 week. At the auction, the church received and accepted a bid from Lauren Green equal to the fair rental value of the home for 1 week. Mandy cannot claim a deduction because of the partial interest rule.

you can donate your whole property interest (i.e. your contract) to a charity and deduct the fair market value but you are not actually allowed to donate a "partial interest" in your timeshare to get a deduction. and since charities would be limited to only accepting one transfer in per UY (and would have to own their own contract to accept a transfer) donating "points" is not really an option either.

(OTOH, you would be able to rent a reservation for cash and get a deduction for donating the cash if you wanted to do it that way. or donate the use to charity just to be charitable.)

 

[Dividends]

Thanks for the IRS link, i'll double check with CRA if time share is the same up here in canada.

I'm not trying to be "funny" with the idea, but im guessing people rent points to help offset costs of MF but if donating points could yield a better return why not go that way?

 

[RobDoc]

Thanks for the IRS link, i'll double check with CRA if time share is the same up here in canada.

I'm not trying to be "funny" with the idea, but im guessing people rent points to help offset costs of MF but if donating points could yield a better return why not go that way?

"Points" have no value per the DVC POS. You would be donating a reservation made using those points and it can certainly be argued that the "value" of that contribution is the maintenance fee for those same points.

As already noted, the US IRS does not allow charitable deductions for timeshare stays - only a deduction if you donate the timeshare ownership itself to the charity.

You might consider renting a reservation to someone and donating the proceeds to charity if you are looking for a deductible charitable contribution.

 

[chalee94]

Thanks for the IRS link, i'll double check with CRA if time share is the same up here in canada.

I'm not trying to be "funny" with the idea, but im guessing people rent points to help offset costs of MF but if donating points could yield a better return why not go that way?

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/chrts/prtng/gfts/whts-eng.html

What types of transactions generally do not qualify as gifts?

Transactions that do not qualify as gifts include...use of a timeshare...

i'm not canadian but it looks like they take the same stance...

 

[Dean]

Thanks for the IRS link, i'll double check with CRA if time share is the same up here in canada.

I'm not trying to be "funny" with the idea, but im guessing people rent points to help offset costs of MF but if donating points could yield a better return why not go that way?

As noted, not possible in the US and doesn't look to be so in CAN either. That's not to say it hasn't been done but it's a large audit flag in the US. Most states have timeshare related rules requiring inclusion of wording in the documents not to expect large returns renting/resale (not as an exclusion of the option as some DVC owners would like to think it means but as a statement of expectation). The last time we were in MX a table of 6 people next to us were discussing this very thing. They had bought with the idea of donating and receiving a large deduction, when I talked to them they said the sales person had played this up very strongly. I had to break the bad news to them and unfortunately, I think their purchase was on a previous trip, not that it's easy to cancel in MX regardless.