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Discussion
The law is well settled that tuition paid for the education
of the children of the taxpayer is a family expense, not a
charitable contribution to the educating institution. See DeJong
v. Commissioner, 309 F.2d 373, 376 (9th Cir. 1962), affg. 36 T.C.
896 (1961). A tuition payment to a parochial school is generally
not considered a charitable contribution because the taxpayer
making the payment receives something of economic value, i.e.,
educational benefits, in return. See Winters v. Commissioner,
468 F.2d 778, 781 (2d Cir. 1972), affg. T.C. Memo. 1971-290. The
payment proceeds primarily from the incentive of anticipated
benefits to the payor beyond the satisfaction which flows from
the performance of a generous act. See DeJong v. Commissioner,
supra at 376. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit further
stated:
The value of a gift may be excluded from gross income only
if the gift proceeds from a “detached and disinterested
generosity” or “out of affection, admiration, charity or
like impulses” and must be included if the claimed gift
proceeds primarily from “the constraining force of any moral
or legal duty” or from “the incentive of anticipated benefit
of an economic nature.” We must conclude that such criteria
are clearly applicable to a charitable deduction under
� 170.
Id. at 379.
It is clear in this case that petitioners’ payments to the
schools were not made out of detached and disinterested
generosity or out of affection, admiration, charity, or like
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