The Tax Law of Charitable Giving. Bruce R. Hopkins

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The Tax Law of Charitable Giving - Bruce R. Hopkins


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The court dismissed the importance of control between the business and the recipient charitable organization and the fact that everyone involved anticipated that the gifted property would be sold or otherwise liquidated. Wrote the court: “Only through such a step could the purpose of the charitable contribution be achieved.”83

      In another instance, an individual made annual gifts, for 10 consecutive years, to a university of closely held stock in a corporation of which he was the majority shareholder, an officer, and a director. He retained a life interest in the gift property and confined his charitable contribution deduction to the value of the remainder interest. Each year, the university tendered stock to the corporation for redemption; each year, the corporation redeemed it. There was no contract evidencing this cycle of events. The university invested the redemption proceeds in income-producing securities and made quarterly disbursements to the donor.

      The enforceability of a pledge is a matter of state law. Some states require the existence of consideration as a prerequisite to the existence of an enforceable pledge; other states will enforce a pledge on broader, social grounds.

      As one court case reflects, however, a charitable pledge can arise in other ways. A trustee of a small college and his colleagues were concerned about the long-term financial viability of the institution. He wanted to substantially augment the college's endowment fund. To that end, he caused a company (of which he was the president) to issue (in 1981) to the college a zero-coupon original-issue discount bond, with a term of 50 years and a $20 million face amount, payable upon maturity in 2031 (unless the bond was retired early). The purchase price of the bond was $23,066 (representing


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