- quote -

Now, in Salt Lake City, "in front of Temple Square" may not
be public, since the Mormon Church bought Main Street from
the city a while back.

--
Thomas E Healy, CPA, PC
1650 38th St., Ste 202W
Boulder, CO 80301
Please send email to: tom[at]tomhealycpa.com, since I block all email at my
newsgroup address.
phone (303) 443-1804
fax (720) 489-3772

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MODERATOR: This is not a partisan politics newsgroup,
therefore this thread is closed AND I will take a
closer look .sig comments.

Phoebe Roberts, EA wrote:

- quote -

What difference would that have made?

I thought that Bush should have waited until ALL votes were
counted before declaring victory. A premature proclamation
disrespects the system (ie: absentee, overseas and provisional
voters).

MTW

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Frederick Jorden wrote:

- quote -

How's that relevant to supporting or not supporting groups
whose goals I don't agree with?

Phoebe *who thought Kerry should have conceded around midnight*

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- quote -

And does it matter to which party the donor contributes?

ChEAr$,
Harlan Lunsford

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Harlan Lunsford <hnslunsford[at]bellsouth.net> wrote:
- quote -

If "in front of the store" is public property (e.g.
sidewalks, as in downtown Mpls) they have no say on who can
be there.

If it's their private property, they can be fairly arbitrary
in making their decisions. (After all, they can have 18
aisles of Chrismas stuff for two months, without being
required to sell any stuff for other holidays. They can
likewise say "We think Charity X will drive away more
potential customers than it attracts, so we don't want it on
our private property.")

- quote -

They can likewise contribute as they wish.

- quote -

I'm sure there are plenty of groups that would, in many
cases to prove a point rather than to spend a lot of effort
to raise little money.

- quote -

It's always better to contribute by check, so you have a
record. [YADATROT]

I can't see any likely position for Target which would cause
them to care whether or not somebody (who might or might not
be a customer) gave a charitable donation; in fact, if they
still support SA but actually believe their statement,
they'd most likely thank you for making the contribution.

(This thread should probably move over to mlm if we're going
to discuss what they can and can't do.)

Seth

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- quote -

Yes, I do. Those donations plus donations of time are not
tax deductible but are taken into consideration in computing
the charitable discount on the client's bill

Jan Zobel EA

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Phoebe Roberts, EA wrote:
- quote -

Do you have one for the Boy Scouts too?
The election is over.

--
Frederick E. Jorden http://Tax-Accounting-Payroll.com
7825 Midlothian Tpk - 207 Richmond, VA 23235-5247
EMAIL knowtax[at]bigfoot.com
(804) 320-6210 FAX (804) 320-6211

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Phoebe Roberts, EA wrote:
- quote -

I couldn't load that particular page for some reason.

Are you telling me that Salvation Army also contributes to
that rainbow outfit?

My contribution is being put on hold till I hear about this.

ChEAr$,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

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Harlan Lunsford wrote:

- quote -

And I urge all who will consider it, to contribute this to
the Salvation Army:
http://www.soulforce.org/pdf/kettlevoucher.pdf

Phoebe

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JanZtax wrote:

- quote -

Pardon me if I've asked this before, but do you count
POLITICAL contributions/activism (non-deductible for tax
purposes) under your policy?

MTW

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- quote -

Harlan-
I just don't want to let this "solicitation" pass without
comment. Not all on this list are in agreement with you.
I, for one, am not (but then I'm sure you already knew
that!)

Jan Zobel EA

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- quote -

Absolutely, they know about it; it's part of my "pricing and
policies" sheet (that every client gets with their tax
questionnaire).

Those who might have voted with their feet are long ago gone
since I've been doing this for many years. My clients all
know how important philanthropy and social change
contributions are to me. The only "advertising" I do for my
tax practice is my own charitable contributions, which,
along with personal referrals, is what brings new clients.
And, by the way, I ask on my questionnaire how much people
have donated in money AND/OR time so I do know (to the
extent that clients tell me) about time they've spent doing
volunteer work.

Jan Zobel EA

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Tom Healy wrote:

- quote -

But that doesn't wipe out itemized deductions ENTIRELY.
Wouldn't 20% of $900,000 (in this case) still be deductible?
(But, I agree, this nevertheless takes most of the "fun" out
of the deduction.)

MTW

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Frederick Jorden wrote:
- quote -

I'm glad you mentioned that, Frederick, cause I was JUST
thinking of same thing to bring out .

And the reason they mention is that they would have to allow
any and all other groups to solicit in front of the store.
Perhaps they're thinking of all the groups they contribute
to, including some groups not in favor of certain
constitutional amendments in eleven states.

Of course locally I've never seen any other groups pressing for
collection space at local stores, just the Salvation Army.

I urge all who will consider it, to contribute money this year
to the Salvation Army and let them know why, with carbon copy
of the letter to Target. Yes, I will.

ChEAr$,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

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- quote -

Roughly, 3% disallowance of itemized deductions times
$30,000,000 AGI.

Tom

--
Thomas E Healy, CPA, PC
1650 38th St., Ste 202W
Boulder, CO 80301
Please send email to: tom[at]tomhealycpa.com, since I block all email at my
newsgroup address.
phone (303) 443-1804
fax (720) 489-3772

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Harlan Lunsford wrote:
- quote -

And others contribute time and other services which they
cannot deduct. The folks who work on building houses for the
poor. Others who work in disaster relief for the Red Cross
and the Salvation Army. The person who picks up the lunch
tab for the Military person at the airport. None of these
are deductible. You may never know they do it. In fact I
kind of remember a passage in the bible about folks who call
attention to how good they are.

By the way I noted that Target stores no longer will allow
Salvation Army bell ringers in front of their stores.

--
Frederick E. Jorden http://Tax-Accounting-Payroll.com
7825 Midlothian Tpk - 207 Richmond, VA 23235-5247
EMAIL knowtax[at]bigfoot.com
(804) 320-6210 FAX (804) 320-6211

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- quote -

He is 50% owner of an S-Corp, which didn't make any
contributions. He did set up a private foundation a few
years ago, but hasn't contributed any money in several
years. We double checked on the charity and were told "no
contributions" for 2003, so it isn't that he forgot.

I must be in the minority as well, because I believe that we
should provide strong hints to clients about charity. As to
the difference between his taxes and mine being charity,
that's a load of male bovine waste. By that logic, I should
consider the increase in my taxes from year to year as being
charity.

Living in a high-cost area (metropolitan New York City), I
can understand how a client making $250,000 can feel
financially squeezed to raise a couple of kids, but when the
income goes above $1,000,000 and the client is that cheap,
that's another story. Sometimes there is an underlying
problem, such as the addiction to acquiring real estate, but
this client's income is more than the combined value of all
of his homes.

I took the Becker CPA review course 15 years ago and still
remember his lecture on a CPA's responsibility to the world
(vis a vis charitable giving).

Gary

--
You can probably X figure out X which letters to X delete to
derive my email address X.

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- quote -

The sad thing about this is that at this income level
charitable planning can actually result in more funds going
to loved ones than in the absence of planning - at least
except for 2010. A good book on the subject is Bill Gates
Sr's book, "Wealth and Our Commonwealth." Yes, THAT Bill
Gates.

--
Thomas E Healy, CPA, PC
1650 38th St., Ste 202W
Boulder, CO 80301
Please send email to: tom[at]tomhealycpa.com, since I block all email at my
newsgroup address.
phone (303) 443-1804
fax (720) 489-3772

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Tom Healy wrote:

- quote -

I've been trying to replicate that result, but haven't
succeeded. How did you do that and/or what assumptions did
you make?

MTW

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JanZtax wrote:

- quote -

One question, Jan. Do you actually tell your non
contributory clients about the 50$ penalty? And what do
they say about it? Have you noticed any of them "voting
with their feet"?

While I have in the past discounted a fee to one really
needy, or even done a return free to an army
reservest/national guardsman called to active duty, I
could never discriminate on what many will call a
moral/ethical basis.

Well.... exception of course proves the rule, cause I DO
discriminate against liars and cheaters and evaders.

ChEAr$,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA
Tue, 9 Nov 2004 17:51:00

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