An oddly phrased receipt

[redbird]

I just donated another $30 to Freedom for All Massachusetts (for Yes on 3/transgender equality), because donations are being matched right now. I just got an emailed thank-you that makes me wonder about whoever programmed it: "This letter will serve as your receipt for tax purposes. No amount of the contribution is tax deductible under the law. You did not receive anything of value, either goods or services, in exchange for this contribution."

I know there are a lot of worthwhile causes that can use our money right now; I'm donating to this one partly because it affects people I know, and partly because it feels like the chances of success right now are better at the state level.

Comments

[drwex]

It's a little bit goofy but not entirely terrible. Telling people it's not deductible doesn't say why - it can be not-ded either because the recipient organization is not eligible, or because the 'donation' got you something of value. Ruling out both cases is kind of lawyerly but given how much the right-wing trolls have been targeting liberal organizations for even trivial violations I think it's not a stupid idea to CYA.

[redbird]

The phrasing of it as my "receipt for tax purposes" is what seemed a little odd.

[sine_nomine]

Speaking as the person who generates receipts for another nonprofit organization they should have changed the language. However if their receipt process is anything like anything ours used to be, it's all point and click and merge. They aren't reading them. And their template may have been wrong.

[redbird]

That seems likely. And with limited resources and time, I'm not asking them to worry about this, just posting it here because I am easily amused.

(Right now, MassMutual is matching donations up to a total of $30,000, which isn't chicken feed, but isn't huge either.)

[adrian_turtle]

I understand why the phrasing is customary for charitable organizations that take donations. It doesn't mean the cause has no value. It means, "Dear IRS, This person donated $X. They didn't use it to buy a t-shirt or something. The whole $X may be tax deductible under... Oops, this isn't a tax deductible organization."

I suspect there's a charitable organization (suicide prevention, anti-homelessness, something like that) connected to Freedom for All MA and they transferred over the automatic thank-you notes only changing it to say donations are not tax-deductible.

[redbird]

Oh, I understand the "no value" thing: we used to get receipts for our zoo and museum memberships that said we had paid $XX for the membership, and could deduct $XX-5, with the $5 being the value of what we were receiving. (I thought that was absurdly low, given that we got a year of unlimited admissions, but I assume their lawyers knew what they were doing.)

I was just struck by the fact that they hadn't bothered to look at what they were sending out. Freedom for All Massachusetts is a 501(c)4, according to the letter, though I suspect sine_nomine is right about them using software written for something else. (It could be worse: the Dragon Awards website talks about sweepstakes rules.)