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materials in issue are original documents, and none contain an
original signature or notation of McVeigh or any other person.
Petitioners claimed a deduction of $294,877 on their joint
Federal income tax return for 1997 for the donation of the
materials. The deductions at issue in this case were carried
over from petitioners’ 1997, 1998, and 1999 Federal income tax
returns.
Respondent disallowed the charitable deduction claimed by
petitioners for the donation of the materials related to the
criminal prosecution of McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing
because respondent determined that petitioner did not personally
own the materials that were provided to him for the purpose of
preparing McVeigh’s legal defense.
OPINION
In order to be eligible for a charitable contribution
deduction under section 170(a), a taxpayer must make a gift of
property to a qualifying charitable organization. Sec. 170(c).
The parties agree that the University of Texas is a qualifying
charitable organization for purposes of section 170, but they
disagree about whether petitioner legally owned the materials and
thus whether his donation and transfer of possession of the
materials effected a valid gift. In applying a provision of
Federal tax law, State law controls in determining the nature of
a taxpayer’s legal interest in property. United States v. Natl.
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