Suppose I make a contribution to a charitable program run by my state government during 2015. It's basically treated as a charitable contribution on my federal income tax return. It happens to also qualify as a credit (rather than a deduction) on my state income tax return.
After my 2015 returns are filed in 2016 there's an, "Oops we screwed up" letter from the state agency that took the contribution. They accepted too many contributions and are revoking the state tax credits for the latest-arriving contributions and will be returning the funds to those people.
Well, had I accepted a refund check I imagine that I would've simply treated it as a recovery on my 2016 federal return. But, I email them letting them know that instead of a refund check they should just treat it as a 2016 contribution. They send me a letter thanking me for my 2016 contribution, but list the date of contribution as the original 2015 date.
Did I technically exercise control over the money when I emailed them telling them to keep the money thus causing a recovery and re-contribution to both take place?