Charity, Art, Receipt, Acknowledgment

This past weekend, I bought a piece of artwork at a church related art show. First of all, the cashier at the art show undercharged me for local sales tax, but I'm cool with that. My personal check was made payable to the church, not the artist, and I made no notation on the check.

Here's the real question: Along with the receipt for the amount I paid (including the incorrect sales tax, btm), they gave me another document that stated rather stuffily that "One half of the proceeds of the sale price of the art work would be given to the church's charities."

So, if this is really about me paying 1/2 for the artwork and 1/2 to something that might be a charitable organization, how far short of the required documentation for a deduction for half of what I paid am I?

Yeah, we all know the "no goods or services were provided" recitation, but what's necessary when there *was* valuable goods/services provided as part of the purchase price for some artwork?

The oil painting is pretty nice. The total cost is over $250, but one half of it would be less than $250.

And the screwed up sales tax we'll just look past, okay? The cashier is a personal friend who takes criticism poorly...

So, if this is really about me paying 1/2 for the artwork and 1/2 to something that might be a charitable organization, how far short of the required documentation for a deduction for half of what I paid am I?

Stuffy statement notwithstanding, you bought a painting and did not make a charitable contribution, unless perchance the amount you paid exceeded the FMV of the painting. So you might have a contribution for the excess, but it's incumbent upon you to document how you determined FMV.

Sounds more like the artist is the one making the charitable contribution from the sales proceeds. But again, for YOUR records, you would need to determine FMV of the painting before you can consider a charitable deduction for yourself.

The artist didn't donate the sale proceeds. He donated his canvas and paint; his basis is his deduction.

I went to a fundraising lunch for a 501(c )(3) non profit organization last weekend. They had an fundraising auction. The organizer had a catalog list for everything in the auction. For example, a pearl necklace was listed as $2,000 and sold at $2,800.

We believe the difference between the amount paid and the published value in the catalog list may be counted as a charitable contribution deduction.

How do you figure out FMV under "half of the proceeds"? Are there any catalog list? I believe "half of the proceeds" is not related with FMV.

Frankly - I disagree. You don't know that the artist donated the painting to the church. It could be that the artist put up the painting for sale at the art show - perhaps on some sort of consignment sale. When the painting sold, could be that the artist is receiving 1/2 of the sales proceeds and 1/2 of the sales proceeds are going to "the church's charities". If so, it could be construed that the artist receives 100% of the sales proceeds and then donates 1/2 to the church as advertised.

OP's statement says that 1/2 goes to "the church's charities" - who gets the other half? The church or the artist? Has ownership transferred from artist to the church? Who owns artwork that didn't sell?

I think we all generally agree that OP doesn't get the charitable contribution unless some determination of FMV-compared-to-sales-price supports that.

We believe the difference between the amount paid and the published value in the catalog list may be counted as a charitable contribution deduction.

IRS supports that belief.
https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/charity-auctions

In part, here's what IRS says there about this:

For example, a charity may publish a catalog, given to each person who attends an auction, providing a good faith estimate of items that will be available for bidding. Assuming the donor has no reason to doubt the accuracy of the published estimate, if he or she pays more than the published value, the difference between the amount paid and the published value may constitute a charitable contribution deduction.

Please note the IRS's repeated use of the word "may" in the ambiguous explanation of what may/might/could happen in this scenario. With a "good faith estimate" and "assuming" the estimate is an accurate value there's no reason to doubt that we can put a man on the moon.

If the artist had told me that she would sell me a similar painting for $200 plus sales tax, and the church was asking $400 for the one being offered in the art show, would that "document" the value of the painting, for me, for tax purposes, for a charitable contribution deduction? Let's say, also or alternatively, that the artist would have been willing to give me a written statement saying that she would have sold the picture that was in the show to me for $200, without the church in the middle...

Maybe contact the charity and or artist before you make a purchase nest time?

In your original post, you said "church related art show" not "church benefiting art show". I've attended arts and crafts shows at churches and other tax-exempt organizations' facilities where the artists MAY donate part or all the proceeds but are not obligated to do so.

The artist gave half of what you paid for the painting to the church. You bought a painting. I hope you think it is worth what you paid.