Donated Burial

[Burke]

If this is the same case she posted about earlier, the documents were not from the church. It was the cemetery.

[Possi]

Will do that

There are rules about the written appraisal. The letter from the Church is not what you need in this case. Look at the back of Form 8283 and/or read the instrucitons.

If it were a peice of property, I could see the appraisal being pretty easy to attain. She isn't going to get an appraisal (I just spoke to her) so we are taking the cost.

This has been a great exercise for me and I appreciate ALL the input. I was so afraid to take the FMV and reading the fine-print affirmed my stand.

Gracias everyone!

[Gary2]

I am curious as to what the church will actually do with it. Maybe sell it at a raffle? How in the world will they decide to whom to give it without incurring favoritism, or other problems? It's not like they can hold services in it for the general congregation. So what good is it to them? If they DO sell it, I think the IRS would want it to be treated like a car is -- deduction would be limited to what they get for it. Interesting hypothesis. Hopefully, it was not intended to be a gift to the minister/pastor/priest.

I can't speak for any churches, let alone this one in particular, but many synagogues do operate cemeteries and sell plots. I can certainly imagine someone who bought a plot and then moved away, deciding not to use it, might choose to donate it back to the synagogue. They'd just add it to the list of unowned plots available to sell.

What I find interesting in this question is the inscription. How do you transfer an inscription? Is it just a pre-paid contract to carve the marble? Or an irrelevant reference to something already carved into the mausoleum?

[Possi]

Pre paid

I can't speak for any churches, let alone this one in particular, but many synagogues do operate cemeteries and sell plots. I can certainly imagine someone who bought a plot and then moved away, deciding not to use it, might choose to donate it back to the synagogue. They'd just add it to the list of unowned plots available to sell.

What I find interesting in this question is the inscription. How do you transfer an inscription? Is it just a pre-paid contract to carve the marble? Or an irrelevant reference to something already carved into the mausoleum?

It is a prepaid contract.

[taxea]

Uh... do you mean that if it were for a designated "body", you would only use cost versus fmv?

(grin)

no I me a donation is not deductible if it is designated to a particular individual. i.e. I could not take a donation for this item/s if I told the mortuary that my intention for the donation is to bury you (tehee). I could only take it if my intention was to allow the church/mortuary to use it as they see fit.