By B. Paul Husband

            In June of 2011, the United States Tax Court decided Van Dusen v. Commissioner, which addresses the rules for deductions of unreimbursed out of pocket expenses incurred in charity work. 

            In Van Dusen, a cat-loving attorney worked on a volunteer basis in association with a Section 501(c)(3) charity called “Fix Our Ferals” with dozens of feral cats, for which Attorney Van Dusen provided food, shelter, veterinary care and pet supplies, including kitty litter.

            Ms. Van Dusen deducted a broad range of expenses which she associated with her volunteer work for Fix Our Ferals. The expenses deducted included cat food, kitty litter, veterinary care for cats, funeral expense for one cat, her bar association dues, Costco membership dues, Department of Motor Vehicle fees, electric bills, water bills, garbage collection charges, vacuum cleaner repair, and the costs of a custom air filtration system for her residence.

          Happy Mardi Gras:  Laissez les bons temps rouler!

  The significant holdings in Van Dusen are: 

            (1) Out of pocket expenses incurred in connection with providing services to a charity are considered under the set of rules applied to gifts of “money” (Tr. Reg. Section 1.170A-13(a)) rather than the rules applied to gifts of “property” (Tr. Reg. Section 1.170A-13(b). The “money” rules are simpler than the rules applied to gifts of property.

            (2) The Tax Court will allow some flexibility in accepting alternatives to “adequate records” as substitutes for the records required by the Treasury Regulations to substantiate expenses incurred in connection with gifts to charity, of less than $250. However, the flexibility only works for gifts which are less than $250; not the gifts greater than $250.

            (3) For amounts above $250, the Tax Court will enforce the technicalities of Treasury Regulations Section 1.170A-13.

            (4) The test of “relatedness” between the charitable purpose of the donee and the expenses which were sought to be deducted was applied in Van Dusen and as a result of the “relatedness rules” the bar association dues , the Costco membership dues, the Department of Motor Vehicles expenses, and the vacuum cleaner repair expenses were disallowed. Concerning the connection between the expenses deducted to the work done, the Van Dusen Court stated: “To be deductible, unreimbursed expenses must be directly connected with and solely attributable to the rendition of services to a charitable organization.”

            The Costco membership and vacuum cleaner repair deductions were rejected by the Court on the grounds that they were not exclusively for charitable purposes. 

            (5) Percentage deductions were allowed for the electric bill, the water bill, cat food, cat supplies and the air filtration system, based on the ratio of the taxpayers own pet cats (7) to the “foster” cats (70-80). Thus, deduction of 90% of the pet supplies and cat food were allowed, but only 50% of the cleaning supplies and utility expenses were allowed. 

            For the veterinary expenses, the pet supplies, the cleaning supplies, and the utilities, the Court showed some flexibility and allowed a percentage of the expenses, on the grounds that the taxpayer would have had fewer veterinary service expenses, purchased fewer pet supplies and fewer cleaning supplies if she had not been doing volunteer work for the charity. Similarly, her utility bills would have been significantly lower if she had not had to run a special ventilation system, due to the numbers of cats involved.

The Evidence

            At trial the donor, Ms. Van Dusen, introduced evidence:

            (1) Copies of checks;

            (2) Bank account statements;

            (3) Hospital account history;

            (4) Credit card statements;

            (5) Costco purchase history;

            (6) Gas and electric invoices;

            (7) Waste management payment list;

            (8) Water billing history;

            But all of the records were compiled for trial, well after the expenditures were made in 2004. No written statement from Fix Our Ferals, the donee charity, was obtained prior to the filing of Ms. Van Dusen’s tax return. She would have had better success if she had obtained the “contemporaneous” statement from Fix Our Ferals. For contributions of $250 or more, the Court held a taxpayer must satisfy not only the record keeping requirements, but also the requirements of Treasury Regulation § 1.170A-13(f)(1).

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©B. Paul Husband 2012