Charitable Donations for Miles
 

Is there a master list that someone is keeping that lists current mileage payouts for charitable donations?

I am looking to make some year end donations and I know that some airlines have offered these "bonuses" in times of crisis but wasn't sure if they were available year round.

Thanks for any info!

Great topic! I was looking for the same thing (something like the evreward site where you could type in a charity name and see which loyalty programs give miles and how many miles/$ for donations), but I came up empty. I also did not have much luck with general internet searches. Many organizations allow you to donate miles, but I'm interested in donating money.

I do know that AA has ongoing charity partners who give miles for donations: http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/ea...ities/main.jsp

UA/Delta also are doing a promotion now with the National Foundation for Cancer Research: https://www.nfcr.org/index.php/compo...t/article/1440

If anyone knows of any other opportunities, particularly those that would provide UA miles or provide miles for donations to the American Heart Association or Susan G. Komen (besides AA for Komen), please share!

Mileage donations are donations. They do not qualify as tax deductions.

Most charities allow donations via credit card. You would get your usual credit card miles or bonuses based on the amount of the gift, and the usual tax deduction for the gift to the charity. I'm not familiar with the rules if miles are donated directly to a charity.

Twice a year NFCR offers a bonus greater than the standard 10 miles per dollar. I believe they have one in effect until Dec 31. I suggest calling if interested. The tax letter you receive will specify the value of the miles received so the entire donation amount will not be tax deductible. More information, including POC at NFCR, about miles for charitable contributions here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-research.html

Donating miles directly to a charity is different.

BTW, a couple of weeks ago I received an email from the NFCR POC which stated: “Hi xxx - we just re-negotiated our contract with AA and they have increased our mileage cap from 500,000 to 1 million miles per rolling year per AA account. Spread the word to any buddies who may be planning a big trip in the future.” (I had previously discussed with her the LT AA status changes that occurred on Dec 1. I wonder how much NFCR donations will change now that other charities are also offering 10 miles per dollar (previously the others offered 5) and now that the miles will not count toward LT status.)

That gets tricky, but I think it can be done indirectly. I doubt airlines will let you directly transfer miles to a charity, but you could inform a charity that you will use your personal miles to get awards for the charity. When the charity needs to get some air travel (e.g., school principal needs to attend a conference), you could get a mileage award for the charity's employee, and deduct the fair market value of the miles.

However, this gets complicated if the source of your miles is business travel (travel as an employee or business travel for the self-employed). Then you have a zero cost basis for the miles. That might not be a problem if you've held the miles for more than a year.

In short, to deduct the value of a mileage award you need to put some thought into this, and you need to be prepared for questions from the IRS. And you need to disregard the unhelpful advice someone inevitably gives about how the IRS declared that miles have no value. The IRS did no such thing, as I've explained on FT several times.

Can you show us the IRS code to back up this statement?

Or any IRS announcement, private ruling, etc. So many people are quick to declare that this or that has been settled with regard to airline miles and taxation, but the reality is that very little is certain in this area. The IRS has provided precious little guidance. The only area of clarity is that the IRS does not consider miles earned on business travel to be reportable as taxable income for the employer or the employee. Beyond that, it's wide open.

FWIW, I use personal miles (earned on leisure travel) for business travel, and I deduct the fair market value of those miles as a business expense. Anyone want to report me for this? Be my guest (my name is Andrew Dhuey), but you should know that I've been reporting myself for years with a statement at the end of my 1040 explaining exactly what I'm doing. If the IRS wants to challenge this, I'm all for it.

Not to repeat what has already been said in numerous threads on this subject already ("Search" is your friend), but the issue turns on IRS rules for valuation of a contribution for deduction purposes.

For items not held for investment purposes for over one year, the general rule is you can deduct the fair market value, but not more than your "basis". Basis is usually what you paid for the item -- e.g., you donate an old personal computer, you can deduct the fair market vaue, but not more than what you paid for the computer when you got it plus any repairs/upgrades. (Special rules apply if you got the computer as a gift -- generally you get the same "basis" as the donor had, so in that case what the person who gave you the gift paid for it.) Not normally a problem, since in general things decline in value as they are used, so "fair market value" is usually less than your "basis".

Special rules apply for things held as an investment (stocks, bonds), real estate (your house), antiques, art, and collectables if they've been held for over a year.

Hard to think of miles as an "investment" since they don't earn interest or otherwise appreciate in value over time, so usually the amount you can deduct when donating miles (or things bought with miles) is the cost you paid for the miles. If you bought the miles from the airline, you have a cost; similarly if you won them in a sweepstakes or received them as interest on a bank account and paid the Federal income tax on them, your cost could be the tax plus whatever you paid to enter the sweepstakes.

The problem comes in if you got the miles as a bonus for signing up for a credit card or for flying. What did they "cost" you? The argument usually is that they didn't "cost" you anything since you didn't pay anything extra to get the miles (the plane ticket costs the same whether you collect the miles or not). To the extent you see them as a rebate (repayment of part of the cost you paid for the ticket -- if *you* paid for the ticket), rebates are not considered income but rather a return of part of what you paid for the underlying item, so there is no "cost" and therefore no "basis".

It gets more complicated if the underlying activity (flight, hotel room, etc.) was paid for by an employer. As dhuey notes, the IRS has issued a statement that they will not consider your personal use of those miles to be "income" from your employment, and thus you don't have to declare the value of those miles and pay income tax on them. Technically, then, they didn't "cost" you anything out of pocket and thus arguably have no "basis".

One other consideration -- the statement by the IRS saying that personal use of the miles need not be reported as "income" from employment contains a caveat: if you convert the miles to cash or cash equivalents, then the statement does not apply. So, if you sold the miles, it would seem you'd have to declare the money you got as being income from your employment. What effect does this have when you donate the miles and take a deduction for them thereby lowering your tax payment? Is the tax savings a conversion of the miles to the cash you didn't have to pay in taxes due to the deduction? If so, must you now declare that as income?

So, it can get rather complicated, and as dhuey notes, the IRS has not issued definitive guidance as to some of these issues. As dhuey also notes, this has been discussed in much greater detail in other threads.

And finally, the discussions do not always result in agreement. And for the record, I do not agree with everything dhuey has said, but then reasonable men may reasonably differ. That's what makes horse races and lawsuits.

If you're interested in earning airmiles for donating money, as I think was the original question here, there's also eMiles.com.
1. Sign up with them for your preferred airline,
2. wait to receive an offer from a charity you like,
3. donate money (via credit card for more miles) & earn eMiles,
4. claim airline miles in 500 eMiles increments,
5. wait for miles to post to airline account, usually at the end of each calender month.
Takes awhile, but might be the only thing available, assuming you like the charities eMiles offers. Plus, you can do this all year long and not just during some short-term special offer.

Capital One - got my Hyatt certificates when they were available, used the excess points to pay for the incidental expenses at the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome and the Meridien Brussels. Was left with a points balance of about 3500 points and no desire to use the card again (the loss of the Hyatt certificates, the only redemption that I wanted, was the clincher).

Very easy to donate to the charity of your choice. Yes, I did get a note saying that I donated $35 to the charity. But for me, I just didn't want to see them disappear prior to cancelling the card. I was happy to have the option of still putting them to good use.

For those of you in the FlexPerks program with U.S. bank, you can get triple points for donations to charities listed on their website. There are hundreds of them listed, large and small, local, statewide and national. Sign in to your U.S. Bank account, click on Rewards Center in the left column, click on "view" to see your FlexPerks account and at the bottom of the next page there is a moving list of features. Wait a bit and a "get triple Flexpoints for donations to charity" box will eventually appear on the moving list. Click on "donate" and name the charity to which you want to donate from their very long list. We've used it for a couple of years and no problems getting the triple points to post. Good luck.

Isn't it amazing how many different aspects of taxation law come into play with airline mileage programs? It's like they were designed for exam essay questions.

Exactly -- or scholarly Law Review articles.