Us vs. Museums

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Mon Mar 5 08:28:15 2001

Now, I'm not a tax expert, but I've done my own for a long time, and it's not
very complicated ... If your total (FED + Sate + Local) tax burden, less FICA,
is on the order of 50% then a $100 writeoff is equivalent to a $50 credit, since
what you can deduct from one is normally deductible from the others. That's
quite a bit, if you ask me, particularly when you're allowed to write off the
entire cash basis, less depreciation, that you hve in the thing. If it's a
minicomputer that you bought to run your business, at, say $80,000 and you've
not depreciated the entire amount, then whatever you didn't depreciate out of
its initial value, plus whatever you've invested (but not in maintenance, since
that's separately deductible), is what you can write off now. Sometimes that's
quite a bit, depending on the situation.

Dick

----- Original Message -----
From: "Wayne M. Smith" <wmsmith_at_earthlink.net>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2001 12:48 AM
Subject: Re: Us vs. Museums


> > > Also, people have a misconception of how useful a
> tax deduction really is.
> > > Even a $1,000 donation only amounts to a few
> dollars back on their return.
> > > I'm going to check with my tax guy and find out how
> much a donation
> > > deduction means on the bottom line (unless someone
> here knows this). It'd
> > > be nice to have a baseline figure so that you could
> just offer the
> > > equivalent cash to anyone wanting to donate
> something but is considering
> > > the tax break. Cash is immediate and
> under-the-table :)
> >
> > Well, with a few caveats, it should be your marginal
> tax rate (your
> > 'bracket') times the valuation of the donation. For
> example, your $1000
> > donation should bring you a $280 tax deduction if you
> are in the 28%
> > bracket.
> > - don
>
> 37.3% if you are also in CA in the 9.3% state bracket
> (and it doesn't take much to get there).
>
> Highest possible tax benefit would seem to be a (rich)
> person living in CA in the 39.6% federal and 9.3% state
> brackets - $489 returned for every $1000 donated.
>
>
>
>
Received on Mon Mar 05 2001 - 08:28:15 GMT