If my husband and i helped set up a scholarship to a private school in our town is this deductible? The scholarship is in my late son's name.

[JulieH1 · Accepted solution]

Maybe.

A scholarship is considered a charitable donation if the fund it goes into is tax-exempt. Since you set it up at a private school, it will depend on whether that school has a foundation set up for charitable donations.  Most private schools do, but you need to find out.

The amount you can deduct from your annual income varies depending on your tax bracket and follows the same rules as any charitable contribution. Get proper documentation and get a receipt with their federal identification number.

The scholarship must be awarded on an objective and nondiscriminatory basis. The group of applicants from which the recipients are selected must be sufficiently broad as to be considered a charitable class. The donor of a scholarship cannot take a charitable deduction for a scholarship that is earmarked for the benefit of a specific individual, not even if that individual is unrelated to the donor. Moreover, donors may not circumvent this restriction by tightly delineating the selection criteria. No grants may be awarded to an officer, manager or trustee of the organization, nor to a member of the selection committee, nor to a substantial contributor, nor to certain US government officials. Family members of these individuals are also not eligible to receive grants.