If a church, or other NPO, wants to raise funds using an affiliate program (eg, Amazon), how would the tax write off for the buyers be? Would they be able to write off the entire purchase of the item, or only be able to write off the commission the NPO earns?
If it's the latter, what would the NPO need to furnish to the buyers for their tax purposes?
I'm not certain what you mean. If you mean they use an affiliate program to sell something to raise funds, then there may be no tax write off at all. If someone buys something from a nonprofit, it is not deductible at all except to the extent that the price paid is greater than the reasonable value for what is purchased.
If what you (Ed St) mean is that if I buy an item from vendor A and the vendor donates a portion of my payment to the charity, then I agree with Stu. If the vendor is not a charitable organization itself, there is no charitable deduction for the purchaser. Any charitable deduction would belong to the vendor. If the vendor is a charitable organization, the donation is limited to the difference between the amount paid to the vendor and the FMV of the item/service received.
Ira Smilovitz, EA
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