Higher Seat Donation Minimums - Tax Question

[AeroBuff99]

Ok, so I got the Buff Club renewal in the mail yesterday and the minimum donation per seat has gone up $100 for level 1, $50 for level 2, (I don't remember what level 3 and 4 were). I was wondering how the 80% rule in IRS pub 526 applies http://www.irs.gov/publications/p526/ar02.html#en_US_2013_publink1000229649.

"Athletic events. If you make a payment to, or for the benefit of, a college or university and, as a result, you receive the right to buy tickets to an athletic event in the athletic stadium of the college or university, you can deduct 80% of the payment as a charitable contribution."

My employer only matches the tax deductible portion of the contribution. My question is do I use $400 as the amount required to buy tickets, or is it some lower amount as I could buy season tickets in another section for much less. The thing that really bugs me about this is that in the end because they raised the minimum up it actually reduces the amount they would have gotten vs just having me give that extra amount. I wish they could come up with some way to make the minimum contribution the same for everyone and base seating on points.

 

[SanDiegoBuff]

It's 80% of the payment that you made to recieve the right to buy the tickets. So if you have 4 level 1 tickets, for a donation of $400, $320 of that would be tax deductible. So you could claim $320 and your employer should match the $320.

That's how I read it and how I would do it.

 

[AeroBuff99]

Yea, that is how I was treating it before. Just kind of miffed that in essence they are decreasing the amount they can get from corporate matching by raising the minimum donation. If they switched to a model that gives more emphasis on current year giving and dropping the minimum donation required to buy tickets, they could bring in the same or more while making more of the donation deductible.