'Tis the Season for Charitable Contributions: Museum Memberships and the Quid Pro Quo

I teach tax. I write about tax. I think about tax. I love all things tax (except paying it, but that is the subject of a different blog post).

One of the topics I cover in the basic Federal Income Tax class is charitable contributions. Even before stepping foot in the classroom, most students have a general sense that taxpayers can take a deduction for transfers to charities. Over the course of two sessions, we complicate that statement quite a bit--not all taxpayers will itemize their deductions; there are limits on the amount that can be deducted; not all transfers qualify for the deduction;  the taxpayer must take into account any quid pro quo, etc.

A classic example of a quid pro quo situation is a dinner event sponsored by a charity.  If dinner tickets cost $150 each, and the value of the dinner received is $50, the charitable contribution is limited to $100. Easy, right?

Today I received the most recent membership solicitation (shown at right) from the American Museum of Natural History, home of the great T-rex, many school field trips, and the incomparable setting for the Ben Stiller/Night at the Museum movie trilogy. 

The basic membership for $115 provides one free adult/one child General Admission ticket per visit. The promotional materials advertise that $115 is tax deductible to the extent allowable by law (not all taxpayers itemize, some will hit charitable contribution limits. etc.). The family membership for $150 provides two adult/four child General Admission tickets per year, with $150 advertised as tax deductible.

How can the full cost of the membership be deductible? Clearly there is a different monetary value assigned by the museum to the one adult/one child admission package ($115) and the two adult/four children admission package ($150), or about $35. So shouldn't the tax deduction be less than the cost of the membership, at whatever level? 

What am I missing?

Comments

[Bgw]

AMNH is a voluntary donation museum. You can pay 0 and still get in.

[Bridget Crawford]

Yes, that makes sense, BGW. But it doesn't account for the actual dollar value assigned by the museum to the special exhibits, which are not pay-as-you-wish. Those *appear* to have a $5 per ticket value: https://ticketing.amnh.org/#/tickets. So if the basis membership comes with 4 special exhibit tickets, the tax deductible portion of the "membership" should be reduced by $20.

[concerned_citizen]

Hi Bridget - I don't want to pore over the flyer in detail and don't know the general background of pay or not pay at AMNH, but how do the memberships which state the entire amount is tax deductible differ in benefits from memberships where the amount listed as deductible is less than the total cost of the membership (the two "adventurer" and the "insider" memberships)?