Money from firearm sales and transfer to an medical institution

[spacesheep9mm]

Question: is it a bad idea to raise money from the sales of a firearm and send it to a medical institution for financing a Christian group? Please explain your thoughts why- Thanks, Randy

Hello y'all. I'm a gun owner and a medical student. I want to have a discussion about raising money for an individual. A fellow colleague of mine is out of a job and is not in school anymore due to funding issues. The person is also having difficulties paying off the monthly rent and is now living off of stamps. I'm thinking of holding an auction to sell my Colt 44 magnum and giving all the profits to support my colleague's hard times. What I want to do is have the buyer send a check to the Christian organization I am a member so they can reimburse me and my colleague. However, what concerns should I be worried about with money being transferred to an educational institution? Should I make it a private sale? Would doing so risk a buyer's trust in my claims that they are buying a gun to also help fund on someone's behalf.

Note: I paid $1600.00 for my Colt 44 magnum. Do you think there's any luck I can even get someone to buy it off of me and make a profit for him/her?

 

[AlexanderA]

What you are really asking is a tax law question.

If you auction off your gun, it's the same as a private sale. You may or may not have a taxable gain on the sale, depending on whether the proceeds are more than your cost basis in the gun. (A loss on a personal-use item is not deductible.) Then, you can turn around and make a gift of all or part of the proceeds to your friend, without further tax consequences.

You appear to want to involve a charitable organization as a "middleman" in this deal, presumably to get a charitable tax deduction for you, as the "donor" of the gun, and also for the winning bidder of the auction. Lots of problems with this. First of all, the winning bidder doesn't get a deduction, because he receives a tangible benefit (the value of the gun). Secondly, you don't get a deduction either, because your contribution is "earmarked" for a particular individual. The IRS is not going to look favorably on all this.

Just sell the gun and give your friend whatever you want to give him. Don't overthink it. Actually, this is pretty much off-topic for this forum.

 

[medalguy]

As long as we're OT, consider this: You can make a gift of I believe it's now $13,000 per year to anyone without having to file a gift return, and it does not trigger any taxable event.

 

[Art Eatman]

Set up whatever auction format you want, and let the winner pay you. No benefit in getting the organization involved. Then give the money to your friend.

I doubt that anybody here can really tell you how you'll make out, compared to the $1,600 you have in the gun.