I'm giving my TS to a church...

[koupe377]

I'm thinking of giving my TS away to a church. If i do this can I write this off as a donation? and if so do I write off what I paid for it [less interest] or do I have does the write off amount haveto come from comps?

 

[PigsDad]

You can only claim fair market value, and you better be able to defend that valuation if you are ever audited. It will be no where near what you paid (think pennies on the dollar). Just looking at asking prices on sites that advertise TS sales is not realistic. You need to find actual selling prices.

Kurt

 

[DeniseM]

Did the church already agree to take it?
How did you find them?
Are there any costs to you?

 

[koupe377]

Its my cousin's church, thats the only reason I'll do it. The Church is here in north Florida and the TS is Vistana Villages in Orlando. There is always church stuff going on down there. He is the one talking to them about it. If is doesn't go through then I will sell it for ridiculously cheap.

hmm Fair Market Value... well the value of all real estate has fallen, and the prices they are at, well, I don't think they are "fair" so I'll write off what I think is "fair" instead of the Unfair Market Value.

But how do you get comps for time share's. Its not as easy as looking up county appraiser/tax collector info for residential on the county website.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

You only have a write off if you transfer ownership of the unit to a church. If you are only referring to transferring use of one week (for example, in an auction to support a ministry), there is no deduction.

If you donating the entire ownership, as mentioned above your deduction is the fair market value. Fair market value reflects actually selling prices in the resale market, and FMV is, with few exceptions, only a small fraction (often less than 10%) of what the unit originally sold for.

You don't get to define what "Fair" means. That is defined by the IRS in its rules governing donations. And yes, it might be as easy as looking up county appraiser/tax collector info on the county website. If the property is deeded, deed transfers will be recorded the same as with residential real estate.

 

[DeniseM]

You can find comps on ebay from ended auctions by logging in, going to the timeshare area, search for the TS by name, and then use the menu on the left to search for completed listings. Because of the special assessments, there are a lot on the market now.

If the church agrees to take it make sure they know they will have to pay the maintenance fee and special assessment if it doesn't sell before they are due (likely.)

This link will take you to all of the current, completed Starwood listings - http://completed.shop.ebay.com/item...mdoZRealQ2dEstateQQ_pcatsZ10542QQ_sacatZ15897

BTW - if you decide not to sell it, come see us on the TUG Starwood board - we can help you get more out of your timeshare.

 

[koupe377]

only a small fraction (often less than 10%) of what the unit originally sold for.

You don't get to define what "Fair" means. That is defined by the IRS in its rules governing donations.

Yeah I know.. I was only being an ass, shaking my fist in the face of the IRS. But thanks for informing that it is possible to find sale info from the county.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Its my cousin's church, thats the only reason I'll do it. The Church is here in north Florida and the TS is Vistana Villages in Orlando. There is always church stuff going on down there. He is the one talking to them about it. If is doesn't go through then I will sell it for ridiculously cheap.

hmm Fair Market Value... well the value of all real estate has fallen, and the prices they are at, well, I don't think they are "fair" so I'll write off what I think is "fair" instead of the Unfair Market Value.

But how do you get comps for time share's. Its not as easy as looking up county appraiser/tax collector info for residential on the county website.

This is a valuable property. If you have mandatory Staroptions, an annual week is worth about $6K. I would never give it away. I don't get it.

 

[calgarygary]

It is very generous to give away Vistana Villages. You would have no difficulty in selling it through eBay and would get $ in hand vs. a tax write off. Review the sticky How to sell your timeshare it will be worth a few thousand dollars to you.

 

[koupe377]

This is a valuable property. If you have mandatory Staroptions, an annual week is worth about $6K. I would never give it away. I don't get it.

Yeah I get Staroptions every year and its 1 bedroom, week 19, floating. I just figured the market for everything is so bad that it would take forever to sell it. I looked on Ebay and it didn't look like anything was even being bid on.

Over the next few years I am going to be splitting my time between here and countries in Asia so I don't really care about hanging out in Orlando for a week.

I guess I may reconsider giving it away then cause of course getting some money back out of it would be nice. Like I said I mentioned it to my cousin about talking with his church. Honestly I'm not a religous person so just in general I wouldn't be giving anything to a church.

thanks for the info

 

[Patri]

I can't imagine a church would want to get tied down to a timeshare. Make sure both parties are agreeing to the same thing.

 

[MaryH]

koupe377,

If you are travelling a lot or will be living partially abroad, you might want to look if some of the SVO properties can be of interesting to you for vacations or stopovers since you have staroptions. I know when I came back from 6 months in NZ, I stopped off in Hawaii for a short stay, albit using my hotel points.

Sounds like you paid a lot more for it then it is worth now. If you bought it from the developers, you might be able to transfer them to starpoints (SPG FF points) and that can be used for hotels. It may not be a great exchange rate but sometimes you can find great values for redemption in Asia.