Housing collections (was: other Utah collectors?)

which you manage your collection if you're going to go to the whole trouble of purchasing land or creating structures to house it. That changes the tax situation dramatically To me that sounds as lousy as thing to do as parking in a handicap space. Yes, technically a person's collection is not for making a profit, but that hardly makes anyone a "non-profit" in the legal sense. Non-profit / 501(c)3 status is for actual organizations that deserve a tax break because they do good for their communities. Just because someone's collection is not for commercial gain is irrelevant -- why does an individual collector * deserve * a tax break? He doesn't. If you buy land for any reason except a legitimate non-profit, then pay your taxes on it. Tax fraud is a pretty serious crime. -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Richard Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2005 9:21 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Housing collections (was: other Utah collectors?) In article <006c01c60cdc$bedbc490$33406b43 at 66067007>, "Keys" <jrkeys at concentric.net> writes: This is why my friend was interested in purchasing a space instead of leasing one -- as the owner of the mortgage, you get that interest tax deduction. However, he is in the lucky financial position of being able to afford such a proposition. Me, I could afford the vacant lot, but probably not an existing structure, which is why I was considering an alternative housing style construction (Dennis Weaver "Earthship" style) to keep the construction costs low and give an additional novelty aspect to the building. With some alternative construction techniques the build cost can be as low as $15K. Additionally, it may be helpful to form a 501(c)3 as the entity through which you manage your collection if you're going to go to the whole trouble of purchasing land or creating structures to house it. That changes the tax situation dramatically and suddenly you can apply for grants from places like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for historic preservation funds :-). -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ: <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/> Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty <http://pilgrimage.scene.org>