JanZtax wrote:

- quote -

Fascinating, isn't it! <g
As one of our senators commented several weeks ago, the
sales tax deduction wouldn't stand a snow ball's chance
outside of the context of election-year politics.

Still, we'll take it, even though it might come with a
bitter taste. <g
MTW

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Don Priebe wrote:

- quote -

Cars sold at auction (at least the ones I'm familar with)
generally are purchased by car retailers, and they buy for
about half (or a bit more) what they think they can sell
them for. These auctions are also limited to dealers and
those with connections in the business.

Stu

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Rich Carreiro wrote:
- quote -

1And thus a newly revised form 4562. Which harks back to
one year in which they did change the 4562 like a horse in
mid stream.

ChEAr$,
Harlan Lunsford

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mtwingcpa[at]yahoo.com said

- quote -

Ah, just the thing to do while drinking those lattes at
Starbucks! (OK, I did deserve your earlier jab at my
self-centered comment!) -- I just hadn't realized how many
of the states with no income tax are swing or red states!

Jan Zobel EA

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<discussing that charities only receive a small percentage
of the proceeds from donated car sales
- quote -

It could well be only 10% of the "blue book" since cars at
an auction sell for much less than the "blue book" excellent
condition retail price. Local newspaper stories have been
incorrectly saying that present law allows deduction of the
full retail price.

A report on car donation programs in California for 2000 is
available at
http://caag.state.ca.us/charities/pu...000cf_supp.pdf

Those car donation companies returned anywhere from 3.2% to
80% of their revenue to the charities, with an overall
effective rate of 34.7%. In contrast, thrift stores only
returned 15.7%. (Thrift stores however can also serve as
employment for marginal workers.)

--
Don EA in Upstate NY

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rick++ wrote:

- quote -

You mean "resales", don't you?
Actually maybe this will channel those used car donations to
organization which actually take the car themselves and sell
it, because they will obtain more for it than wholesaling
the car to those "outfits". but 10%? I thought it was
more like 33%.

- quote -

Good question there. These three goodies are part of the
American Jobs Creation Act of 2004; not YET signed by the
President. (He had better hurry up!)

The car donation rules don't take effect until next year,
but the SUV and sales tax rules take effect after enactment.

Now, I wonder if IRS will delay work on forms until after
President signs; or, will they take the bull by the ... ...
horns.... and get cracking? If not, that would hold up
final forms.

ChEAr$,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA
Tue, 19 Oct 2004 16:52:51

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rick++ wrote:

- quote -

Although many of these provisions don't apply until 2005 (or
later), there will no doubt be ~some~ immediate consequence.
I believe the sales tax deduction does apply NOW (in 2004),
and thus we'll have to see how quickly the IRS comes up with
tables, procedures, etc. - and, of course, how quickly those
elements get built into tax software. I wouldn't be too
surprised if many people will have to compute their sales
tax deduction ~manually~ because software implementation
might not come until late(r) in the filing season.

MTW

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"rick++" <rick303[at]hotmail.com> wrote

- quote -

"Charity car rentals"?????

- quote -

I doubt it. The IRS had planned on most of the provisions
being extended.

--
Paul A. Thomas, CPA
Athens, Georgia
taxman at negia.net

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rick303[at]hotmail.com (rick++) writes:

- quote -

Uh, just the opposite, actually. As soon as the bill
is signed into law, the Section 179 deduction for
SUVs drops to $25,000 from $100,000.

--
Rich Carreiro rlcarr[at]animato.arlington.ma.us

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Although the recently passed tax $136 billion tax law was
mainly pork for corporations, there appear to a number of
consumer items in it including:

Charity car rentals can only be deducted for what the
charity sells it for, typically to an auction consolidator.
Typically they'd only get about 10% of blue book price fromt
he consolidator.

Taxpayers have a choice of *either* deducting state income
taxes or sales taxes on schedule A. This is helpful in the
handfull of non-income tax states, such as the home states
of the president and vice president.

The "SUV exemption" was extendend, i.e. quick writeoff of
vehicles larger than 6,000 pounds used for business.

The news article says there are about 70 such clauses in the
new tax code.

Will this postpone finalized year 2004 tax forms usually
released around now?

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