This month’s "Shop Talk" column in the Journal of Taxation by Sheldon I. Banoff (Katten, Muchin Zavis Rosenman, Chicago) & Richard L. Lipton (Baker & McKenzie, Chicago) has two items of particular interest to tax teachers:
- Kenny Rogers of the Texas Rangers was ordered to pay a $50,000 "fine" to Major League Baseball after shoving two cameramen. Rogers appealed, and an arbitrator ordered that the fine be "converted to a charitable deduction." Can Rogers deduct the $50,000?
- A Chicago Sun-Times columnist solicited funds to "Save Our Country" — in a disclaimer, the columnist noted that if readers were stupid enough to send him checks, he would cash them "and apply them to my own unspeakable purposes (well, give them to the Sun-Times Charity Trust)." Does the columnist have income? Can he claim a charitable deduction?
