What’s the Charitable Deduction For Donations From a Trust?

Overview

Normally, the computation of a tax deduction for a gift to charity is simple – it’s the fair market value of the donated property limited by basis.  That’s why, for example raised grain gifted to charity by a farmer doesn’t generate an income tax deduction.  The farmer that gifts the grain doesn’t have a basis in the grain. But, special rules apply to a trust from which property is gifted to charity.

Today’s post looks at the issue of the tax deduction for property gifted to charity from a trust.  Those special rules came up in a recent case involving a multi-million-dollar gift.

Rule Applicable to Trusts

I.R.C. §642(c)(1) says that a trust can claim a deduction in computing its taxable income for any amount of gross income, without limitation, that under the terms of the governing instrument is, during the tax year, paid for a charitable purpose. Note the requirement of “gross income.”  A trust only gets a charitable deduction if the source of the contribution is gross income.  That means that tracing the contribution is required to determine its source.  See, e.g., Van Buren v. Comr., 89 T.C. 1101 (1987); Rev. Rul. 2003-123, 2003-150 I.R.B. 1200.  Does the tracing have to be to the trust’s gross income earned in years before the year of the contribution?  Or, does the trust just have to show that the charitable contribution was made out of gross income received by the trust in the year the contribution was made?  According to the U.S. Supreme Court, the trustee does not have to prove that the charitable gift was made from the current year’s income, just that the gift was made out of trust income.  Old Colony Trust Company v. Comr., 301 U.S. 379 (1937).

But, does trust income include unrealized gains on appreciated property donated to charity?  That’s an interesting question that was answered by a recent federal appellate court.

Recent Case

A recent case involving a charitable donation by a trust raised the issue of the amount of the claimed deduction.  Is it the fair market value of the property or is it the basis of the donated property if that amount is less than the fair market value?  Under the facts of Green v. United States, 144 F. Supp. 3d 1254 (W.D. Okla. 2015), the settlors created a dynasty trust in 1993 with terms authorizing the trustee to make charitable distributions out of the trust's gross income at the trustee's discretion.  The trust wholly owned a single-member LLC and in 2004, the LLC donated properties that it had purchased to three charities.  Each property had a fair market value that exceeded basis.  The LLC received the funds to buy the properties from a limited partnership's distribution to the trust in which the trust was a 99 percent limited partner.  The limited partnership owned and operated most of the Hobby-Lobby stores in the United States. 

The IRS initially claimed that the trust could not take a charitable deduction, but then decided that a deduction could be claimed if it were limited to the trust's basis in each property.  The trust claimed a charitable deduction in excess of $20 million on Form 1041 for 2004, and later filed an amended Form 1041 increasing the claimed charitable deduction to just shy of $30 million, and seeking a tax refund of over $3 million.  The IRS denied the refund, claiming that the charitable deduction was limited to cost basis.  The trust paid the deficiency and sued for a refund. 

On the trust's motion for summary judgment, the parties agreed that the donated properties were acquired by the trust with funds coming from gross income from a pre-2004 tax year.  Thus, according to the trust, I.R.C. Sec. 642(c)(1) allowed the charitable deduction to be computed based on the donated property's fair market value.  The court agreed, noting that I.R.C. § 642(c)(1) allowed a deduction without limitation contrary to the basis limitation contained in I.R.C. §170, and that charitable deduction provisions are to be construed liberally in the taxpayer's favor. 

The trial court noted that the donated properties were all acquired with distributions from the limited partnership to the trust, and each distribution was part of the LLC's gross income for the year of distribution.  Thus, the donated properties were clearly bought with funds traceable to the trust's gross income and were donated under the terms of the trust.  The court noted that the IRS admitted that there was no caselaw or other substantial authority that supported the government's position.    The court granted summary judgment for the trust.  

On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reversed.  Green v. United States, No. 16-6371, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 885 (10th Cir. Jan. 12, 2018).  The appellate court noted that the parties agreed that the trust had acquired the donated properties with gross income and that the charitable donation was made out of gross income.  However, the IRS claimed that only the basis of the properties was traceable to an amount paid out of gross income.  It was that amount of gross income, according to the IRS, that was utilized to acquire each property. The appellate court agreed.  There was no realization of gross income on the appreciation of the properties because the underlying properties had not been sold.  So, because the trust had not sold or exchanged the properties, the gains tied to the increases in market value were not subject to tax.  The appellate court reasoned that if the deduction of I.R.C. §642(c)(1) extended to unrealized gains, that would not be consistent with how the tax Code treats gross income.  The appellate court tossed the “ball” back to the Congress to make it clear that the deduction under I.R.C. §642(c)(1) extends to unrealized gains associated with real property originally purchased with gross income  

Conclusion

The charitable donation rules associated with trusts are complicated.  The income tax deduction is tied to the trust’s gross income.  Now we have greater certainty that the deduction is limited to realized gains, not unrealized gains.  Maybe the Congress will clarify that unrealized gains should count in the computation.  But, then again, maybe not.