This quiz will test a person's knowledge on recording various types of donations.

Please review the IRS instructions for the IRS Form 1098-C to see who must file.

In person and private mail carriers must have the donation physically delivered to the charity (the church) by December 31st. This is different than the USPS which the IRS is fine with using the postmarked date.

According to IRS publication 526, page 21, donations that are equal to or over $5,000.00, a paid professional appraiser must be used and their written appraisal must be included with the donor's tax return.

According to IRS publication 1771, the value is never placed on the donor's statement - ie the written acknowledgment. This is the instructions about the information that should be on the donor's statement.
1. the name of organization
2. the amount of cash contribution,
3. a description (but not the value) of non-cash contribution,
4. a statement that no goods or services were provided by the organization in return for the
contribution, if that was the case,
5. a description and good faith estimate of the value of goods or services, if any, that an
organization provided in return for the contribution,
6. a statement that goods or services, if any, that an organization provided in return for the contribution consisted entirely of intangible religious benefits, if that was the case.

The IRS's basic rule is that the gift must be delivered to the church by December 31st. For USPS they use the postmarked date as the delivery date, whether or not the donation envelope is physically delivered to the church.

According to the IRS website donations that equal $250.00 or more need an written acknowledgement.

This question falls under a quid pro quo donation. These are found in the IRS code section 6115.

A volunteer can't deduct their time and services. However an attorney can ask for a GIK donation statement for things like travel expenses for the attorney to come and meet with your organization. Or say for all the cost of mailings to your organization. In other words the expenses have to be documented and not just a 'service' or 'time'. There are a lot of rules on this that the churches should review before giving out any donation statements to any volunteers.

According to the IRS website, non cash donations are not to have their value placed on the statement. Another resource is:

IRS Publication 561.