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to their children was an intangible religious benefit as defined
in those sections, and (3) their tuition payments are deductible
to the extent that the payments exceed the value of the secular
education their children received.11 Petitioners also contend
that they need not show that they intended to make a gift or
contribution to Emek and Yeshiva Rav Isacsohn.
c. Analysis
We disagree. Congress did not change what is deductible
under section 170 in these 1993 statutory changes. Neither
sections 170(f)(8) and 6115 nor the accompanying legislative
history suggests that Congress intended to expand the types of
payments that are deductible as charitable contributions under
11 Petitioners aver:
if a taxpayer pays $100 to his church and
receives in return a book that could be
purchased in any bookstore for $20 plus the
right to sit in a certain pew at the church,
$80 is deductible as a charitable
contribution to the church, regardless of
whether having the right to sit in that pew
is worth $80 or more to the taxpayer, because
that right is only an intangible religious
benefit. Similarly here, to the extent
petitioners’ dual payments to the schools
exceeded the value of the secular studies
they purchased, those payments are deductible
as charitable contributions notwithstanding
that petitioners received religious
educations for their children worth that
excess, because those religious educations
are only intangible religious benefits.
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