Tax Deduction Q
Cacciatore - Wed, 12/28/2011 - 15:40
in
I did a little research for this, so I'm looking for what kind tax deduction I can get from buying the server blade in October. As I understand it I get the amount paid minus fair market value. Since they were sold on eBay with a min $100 would that be considered fair market value at the time of sale?
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do you itemize? If you take
do you itemize? If you take the standard deduction than you do not have to worry about tax deductions, if your allowable deductions exceed your standard deduction than it may be worthwhile. If your income is low enough that the standard deduction is as much or more than you paid in taxes than it is not worthwhile to itemize.
Ah ok, I've never itemized,
Ah ok, I've never itemized, so I wasn't aware of that. Thanks Pox!
even if you itemized...
why would this be a deduction? Were proceeds given to charity? Very cool frame, by the way.
I was watching Pawn Stars the
I was watching Pawn Stars the other day and someone brought in those Back to the Future Nike's (awesome) and he wanted a rediculous price for them, and Rick mentioned that buisnesses will pay rediculous amounts just for the tax write-off, which just made me think about it.
The charity for these was St. Jude's Children's Hospital.
In cases like this only 1
In cases like this only 1 person can claim the write off - not both. Keep in mind that most likely, you didn't actually donate to charity - you paid Blizzard for an item and then they donated the proceeds to charity. So they get the tax write of, not you. (That's why they do these types of things) But it really depends how they (Blizzards tax accountants) wrote up the sales. It could be that they only donated the hardware and that you didn't give anything to Blizzard, you gave directly to the Childrens hospital - I doubt it, but it could be.
Whenever you see those "donate $1 to the food pantry" things at the grocery store it's the same way. The grocery store claims your $1 as their tax deduction - you can not also claim it. The $5 jeans day for united way works the same - the business hosting the event gets the deduction, not the individual contributors. I think they key wording is generally "proceeds go to..." Those are Blizzards proceeds - not yours.
If this was in fact a charitable contribution, you should recieve a statement in the mail from Blizzard, not later than January 31st. I forget the IRS form number, I'll try to look it up later. You can read about this further in IRS publication 526.
Having said all this - the above posters are correct in that this only matters in cases where you are already itemizing your deductions (i.e. you have more itemized deductions than what you would have for the standard deduction - $5700 for an individual). However if the amount is under $250 you don't need a reciept - so if you donate an old pair of shoes to goodwill, you don't actually need any paperwork to claim the $10 write off. People making multiple donations aproaching the $250 threashold are much more likely to flag for an audit though - claim these at your own risk and be prepared to back them up if needed.
Tax, Tax Law and specifically non-profit Tax accounting is sorta a family business for my folks. Unfortunately I get to hear about all the rules for this kinda stuff just about every time I go back home. :P
Contributions to charity
Contributions to charity (under certain specific circumstances - I am not a Tax Lawyer) are tax deductible, if you itemize deductions. The server blade(s) was/were part of a charity auction.