If our charity creates a limited liability company in which the charity is the sole member and a donor gives it a piece of real estate, will the donor be entitled to a charitable contribution deduction?
Charities wanting to accept gifts of real estate but not run the risk of environmental liability spreading to their other assets often consider using a limited liability company to provide a layer of protection. The IRS treats a single member limited liability company as a “disregarded entity” for tax purposes (See Announcement 99-102). Since the IRS specifically ruled in 2012 that a contribution to a single member LLC where the single member is a charity is tax deductible as a charitable contribution, more charities have used this structure. For more than a decade prior to 2012, the IRS had specifically refused to rule that such a contribution was deductible and many charities were unwilling to take the risk that a gift to the LLC would be deductible. But now that it has stated its position, the simple answer is "yes."
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