Are donations to charter public schools tax deductible?
From my understanding donations to public schools are tax deductible because they are government entities i.e. run by school board. Charter schools are usually operated by people outside the school board so they’re not government entities right? Furthering this idea, I noticed that most charter schools have a 501c3.
The charter school that I’m looking at isn’t a 501c3 organization so can I make a tax deductible donation directly to them? I’m thinking I can’t and that I’ll have to make the check payable to the School District instead.
Are charter schools considered a government unit?
From my understanding donations to public schools are tax deductible because they are government entities i.e. run by school board. Charter schools are usually operated by people outside the school board so they’re not government entities right? Furthering this idea, I noticed that most charter schools are operated by a 501c3 org.
The charter school that I’m looking at isn’t a 501c3 organization so can I make a tax deductible donation directly to them? I’m thinking I can’t and that I’ll have to make the check payable to the School District instead.
Edit: Donating to a government entity is tax deductible as long as it’s used for public purposes.
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p526/ar02.html
Pub78 does not cover government entities. PTA has to form as 501c3 because they’re regular people raising money and school district does not have control.
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You are partially correct. In general, donations to public schools are NOT necessarily tax deductible. This is why many schools maintain a PTA as a non profit entity. The rules also vary based on type of donation.
As an example, the Philadelphia School District would not qualify. A donation to the Spruance school PTA would.
If the charter school is not a non-profit, your contrib will not be deductible.
You can search at the link below to see if your chosen recipient is deductible:
You are correct. In order to be a deduction, the donation must be made to a 501(c)(3). BEWARE, Just because the feds have granted that status does NOT mean that the organization is recognized as a charitable organization in your State. In order to get a deduction that will be allowable on both your federal and state income tax returns, check the State status with your Secretary of State’s office.