Can my small business make a corporate donation to my child's private school?

Be careful here. While the school may indeed be a legitimate 501(c)(3), there's an important distinction when making donations that directly benefit your family. The IRS has specific rules about this. If your business makes a donation to your child's school, you need to determine whether there's a "quid pro quo" situation. If your donation results in direct benefits to your child (like reduced tuition, special treatment, etc.), then it's not fully deductible. The IRS would view this as a personal expense being disguised as a business donation. For business sponsorships, you might be able to claim it as an advertising expense if you're getting genuine promotional value (like your company logo on event materials, mention in programs, etc.). But even then, you'd need to show a legitimate business purpose and reasonable relationship between the expense and potential business benefit.

After struggling with a similar situation with my son's school last year, I found an amazing tool that helped me figure out the tax implications. I used taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) to analyze the donation letter from the school and my business documentation. The AI analyzed everything and gave me a detailed breakdown of what would likely be deductible as a business expense versus a personal charitable contribution. It also flagged specific language in the school's documentation that could create problems with the IRS. This saved me from making a costly mistake! The system even generated documentation templates specifically for business donations to educational institutions where there might be personal benefit questions.

Wanted to update everyone - I tried taxr.ai after posting my question here and it was incredibly helpful! The system analyzed the donation request letter from my kid's school and immediately flagged the language about "corporate sponsorships" as potentially problematic from a tax perspective. It explained exactly how the IRS distinguishes between legitimate business advertising expenses and disguised personal donations. The analysis even provided specific documentation requirements for my S-Corp and showed me how to structure a portion of my contribution as a legitimate business expense (the part with real advertising value) while treating the remainder as a personal donation. This clarified everything and saved me from making a mistake that could have triggered an audit. Definitely worth checking out if you're in a similar situation!

I had this EXACT same issue last year and spent literal weeks trying to get someone at the IRS to give me a straight answer. Calling was a complete nightmare - hours on hold only to get disconnected or transferred to someone who couldn't help. Finally, I used Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) and it was a game-changer. They got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent walked me through the specific documentation I needed for my business donation and explained exactly how to handle the potential conflict of interest with my child attending the school. They even sent me follow-up information about the relevant tax code sections. Saved me so much stress!

I need to eat my words and apologize to Profile 11. After dismissing Claimyr as probably a scam, I was desperate enough to try it yesterday after spending 3 hours on hold with the IRS trying to get clarity on this exact donation issue. It actually worked exactly as described. I got a call back in about 15 minutes, and suddenly I was talking to a real IRS representative. She walked me through the specific regulations about business donations to organizations that benefit family members and explained that I needed to document the clear business purpose for any corporate donation. The agent was super helpful and even emailed me links to the relevant IRS publications. I feel kind of stupid for being so dismissive before, but I'm honestly just relieved to have gotten definitive answers from the actual IRS instead of trying to interpret vague online advice.

Instead of making it a pure donation, have you considered buying actual advertising at school events? My company sponsors the yearbook and sports programs at my kid's school, and our accountant treats it as a marketing expense since we get actual advertising space. It's different from a donation because you're receiving a business benefit in exchange.

My wife and I were in the exact same situation 2 years ago. What we ended up doing (after consulting with our CPA) was making a personal donation to the school and then taking the charitable contribution deduction on our individual taxes. Our accountant advised against trying to run it through our business since it could potentially be seen as trying to deduct a personal expense.

Great question about donation limits! For individual taxpayers, charitable contributions are generally limited to 60% of your adjusted gross income (AGI) for cash donations to public charities like schools. Any excess can be carried forward for up to 5 years. For businesses, the rules are different depending on your entity type. Since you mentioned you're an LLC taxed as an S-Corp, any business charitable contributions would actually flow through to your personal return anyway, so you'd still be subject to the individual limits. However, if you can legitimately structure part of it as advertising expense (like Zara suggested), that wouldn't count against your charitable contribution limits at all. The key is making sure whatever you do is properly documented and has a legitimate business purpose. Given the complexity and potential audit risk when your child attends the school, I'd really recommend waiting for your accountant to return before making any decisions. The IRS scrutinizes these situations closely.

I've been through this exact scenario with my consulting business and my daughter's private school. Here's what I learned after working with both my CPA and a tax attorney: The IRS has a doctrine called "private benefit" that applies here. Even if the school is a legitimate 501(c)(3), if your donation provides a substantial private benefit to you or your family, it's not fully deductible. This includes indirect benefits like your child receiving better facilities or programs. However, I found a middle-ground approach that worked well. I split my contribution: 1. A portion went toward legitimate business advertising (program ads, event sponsorship with clear promotional value) 2. The remainder was a personal charitable donation on my individual return For the advertising portion, I made sure to get proper invoices detailing the marketing services provided, and I kept all materials showing my business was actually promoted. This part was fully deductible as a business expense. The key is documentation and reasonable business justification. If you can't articulate a legitimate business reason for the expense beyond helping your child's school, the IRS will likely view it as a personal donation disguised as a business expense. I'd strongly recommend waiting for your accountant to return before proceeding. The audit risk on these transactions is higher when there's a family connection, so you want to make sure everything is bulletproof from a documentation standpoint.