Taxes are not $2, they are more likely to be $8 (25% bracket), but even so Allesandro's point is well taken. The impact on your members is negligible.
My advice, however, would be to void the original check and reissue it to the church. Unless the church is no longer in existence, you should be able to find a postal address for it. In terms of your accounting software, the void (enter as a negative donation) and reissue will cancel out. The deduction will remain in 2002, where it belongs since you prepared and sent the original check then.
Ira Smilovitz
In a message dated 08/22/03 4:00:31 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Alessandro.Squeo@cna.com writes:
It is only $30. Taxes are $2. Enter it as miscellaneous income and buy
pizza for the next meeting and claim it as a learning expense.
My 2 cents.
Al
-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Lancaster [mailto:biglan@bivio.com]
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2003 2:35 PM
To: club_cafe@bivio.com
Subject: club_cafe: Ira or Rip--Please help!
My club has an unusual situation. At the end of 2002 we
made a donation to one of my club member's church. The
donation was for $30 and in the form of a check. We also
claimed this charitable deduction on our taxes. As of
today, the church has not cashed the check nor have any
attempts to find out if they still had it and planned to
cash it have been unsuccessful. The member is no longer
affiliated. What do we do now? This money is still
floating in our books while it was filed with the IRS last
year. How do we handle this money? Can we assume the
church did not want the check (go figure) and keep the
money? If so, how are the books adjusted? Thanks in advance
for your help.