How are charitable gifts taxed?

Factual Questions
1

A recent pit thread brought to light the story of a woman in Florida that needs a bone marrow transplant.

Without getting into the messy political aspect of it, the story mentions that “She managed to raise money to pay for it thanks to her friends and the community”

A bit of Googling puts the price tag for BMT between $100,000 and $250,000.

Assuming, for sake of argument, that she raised $100,000 for the treatment, is that taxable? Would she declare that as income?

I suspect that it’s not, but as a followup: If the hospital, out of the goodness of their heart, gave her the operation for free (a value of $100,000) would she have to report that has a gift for taxation purposes?

I’m basing this loosely on past experience with US tax law, namely that winnings and gifts can be taxed (ie getting a car from Oprah). I’m pretty sure if she were given a $100,000 car, or won it in the lottery it would get taxed. So I’m trying to figure out how a charitable gift of this nature would fit.

2

Yes it would be taxable to the recipient. However, she also most likely would be able to claim her medical expenses (>7.5% of her AGI) as a deduction.

3

Not as simple as that. Gifts are not taxable to the recipient.

The definition of a gift is the issue… and that’s above my pay grade.

Oprah’s audience must have received a “prize”… taxable.

A hospital that doesn’t require payment could be forgiving a debt… often, but not always, taxable.

4

On the other side of it, donations of that nature are also NOT tax-exempt, even if this woman’s family set up a 501©(3) charitable organization to receive the funds. That is one specific exception to the general non-profit tax-exempt nature of a 501c3.