@brhentschel wrote:
All this makes sense. Still one open question. If I pay $1000 for the season tickets and I pay $800 as a seat contribution (which is non-deductible as a donation), my total cost for personal use is $1800. Is basis $1800 or just $1000 as the price of the season tickets? I can't seem to find an answer to that question anywhere.
This gets complicated. You're talking about a situation where the college charges you $800 for permission to buy tickets (that they count as a tax deductible donation) and $200 for the actual tickets.
I think I disagree with my colleague. When you sell the tickets, you are not selling or transferring any portion of the subscription fee ("donation") or any portion of the right to buy future tickets that the subscription fee conveys (because you have to buy season tickets every year to retain the right to buy future season tickets, and that's part of what the $800 "donation" is for. That right is not transferred to the buyer of a single game ticket.). You are only selling the right to attend a particular game on a particular day. Of course, by treating the $800 as a tax deductible donation and $200 as the price of the tickets (divided by the number of games to get the value per game), any capital gains you have will be higher.
As a separate argument, I think that even if your whole basis is the full price ($1000), if you actually take the itemized deduction, the basis must be reduced by the value of the tax deduction ($800), resulting in a net $200 basis.
