TB team and 501c?

[Doug Romrell]

You are avoiding the question. I am trying figure out if contributing $1000 to a travel organization. or a $1000 to a booster club for high school softball. or $2000 to a church. Neither with any associated paperwork.

Folks here are call me a tax cheat ... tax fraud !!!

And consider the IRS does not really care for tax deductions, documented with canceled checks, to charitable organization totaling under $5000.

Please advise me directly.

A donation is one thing. Paying a player fee is quite another. And, I believe that is how the IRS would see it. Doesn't matter what the status of the receiver is.

 

[SoCal_Dad]

We're not allowed to require pay-to-play fees in CA...

ARE YOU SERIOUS?? Isn't this a free country where mutually beneficial voluntary transactions can be consummated by the persons involved???

I'm serious. CA Supreme Court ruled public schools cannot charge fees for extracurricular activities that it deems educational (includes interscholastic sports) because it violates CA's constitutional guarantee of a free education. ACLU started by suing San Diego's school district and brought more suits against other districts it found to be doing the same thing. Here's a link to one district's info on it - Student Fee Info

Due to school budget cuts, support from the school is limited to 3 coaching stipends (for 2 teams), umpire fees for league games and bus transportation for away games on school days. The softball boosters have to raise the money for everything else (e.g. balls, uniforms, add'l coaches, tourney fees, field maintenance, etc.).

 

[Doug Romrell]

I thought you were talking about non-school sports.

 

[ssjones]

You should definitely get a letter from your church!!!

the same for a church? I do not get anything from them either.

 

[Indiana]

I'm serious. CA Supreme Court ruled public schools cannot charge fees for extracurricular activities that it deems educational (includes interscholastic sports) because it violates CA's constitutional guarantee of a free education. ACLU started by suing San Diego's school district and brought more suits against other districts it found to be doing the same thing. Here's a link to one district's info on it - Student Fee Info

Due to school budget cuts, support from the school is limited to 3 coaching stipends (for 2 teams), umpire fees for league games and bus transportation for away games on school days. The softball boosters have to raise the money for everything else (e.g. balls, uniforms, add'l coaches, tourney fees, field maintenance, etc.).

That's interesting, SoCal_Dad - I remember when the lawsuit was first filed. It was all over the news - interesting to hear how it all turned out. Do schools still ask for a "donation"? Our state board of education mandates what can and cannot be charged for. Sports are allowed to require a fee, but other educational programs are not (such as the lab fee for a required course - it is a donation). Students who qualify for the free or reduced lunch program are not required to pay the sports fee.

501(c)3 organizations, such as our school's PTA, does not pay taxes on goods sold for fundraisers; however, the school itself does have to charge sales tax for their student store. I wonder if they pay taxes on the admissions fees for sporting events? I'll have to look that up. Does your school in California charge an admissions fee for sports? Some of our schools use an admissions fee to offset what they would otherwise have to charge for pay-to-play.

From what I understand, organizations with over $10,000 in income pay an $850 filing fee to become a 501(c)3, but there is no annual fee after that.

 

[SoCal_Dad]

That's interesting, SoCal_Dad - I remember when the lawsuit was first filed. It was all over the news - interesting to hear how it all turned out. Do schools still ask for a "donation"? Our state board of education mandates what can and cannot be charged for. Sports are allowed to require a fee, but other educational programs are not (such as the lab fee for a required course - it is a donation). Students who qualify for the free or reduced lunch program are not required to pay the sports fee.

501(c)3 organizations, such as our school's PTA, does not pay taxes on goods sold for fundraisers; however, the school itself does have to charge sales tax for their student store. I wonder if they pay taxes on the admissions fees for sporting events? I'll have to look that up. Does your school in California charge an admissions fee for sports? Some of our schools use an admissions fee to offset what they would otherwise have to charge for pay-to-play.

We definitely ask for donations and "suggest" an amount ($450). We have an OF advertising banner program where people can cover their "donation" by selling a couple of banners. That only covers about half of what we need, so there is a lot of fundraising too. We have monthly meetings with a detailed treasurer's report showing where all the money is budgeted/spent. Still, there are always a few families that are unable/unwilling to cover their costs, so we have to figure in a few "scholarships".

There was a lot of turnover on the board last year and they spent a lot of money that had been carried over from previous years. They're being more careful this year to charge for what we can, so donations and fundraising only have to cover the things we can't charge.

I think the football team is the only one that charges admission. I expected the boys basketball team would too, but I don't think they do.

 

[Indiana]

Thanks - always interesting to learn about different ways to handle budget concerns. I was just at a district level budget meeting last night and things aren't looking much better. Our budget was cut during the big economic downturn in 2010 and unfortunately our tax laws are such that we can't just go ahead and increase the budget now that tax revenue is back up. We had a measure on the ballot back in November to enable us to adjust the budget, but the measure failed.

Charging admission is something to look into... I know parents don't like to pay to watch their own child play, but my family often attends basketball, hockey and football games in other schools to support friends' kids; we are happy to pay admission in that case.