4 Mar
2001
4 Mar
'01
6:22 a.m.
From: Jeffrey S. Sharp <jss(a)ou.edu>
coerced into doing. I want to get as close as I can
to the
*experience* of computing in these machines' era. If these
machines go to a museum, they're just pretty art, and they will
educate _no_one_. They will sit behind glass walls, no one
ever will touch them again, and no one will ever turn them on or
keep them in working order. They are effectively lost. That's
little better then scrapping them, and you _KNOW_ how you feel
about that!
It's combative. I'd also say it's not absolutly true, though, it
could be.
Things to consider:
Is it truly rare or uncommon.
Does an institution actually want it.
Who removes, moves and/or ships it for either case?
A) museum may or may not...
B) You can make points by also providing that service.
Often the "impressive deduction" is not real and the cost to remove and
move the system is up to the owner. If there is a goal, I'd say make it
easiest for the system owner to give or sell to you.
The impressive deduction point is that most machines are simply used
computers in the eyes of the IRS and of limited value and in all serious
consideration most are common enough to not be "collectable" even if
useable.
I got a truckload of small VAXen once because the owner could not
accept cash nor ship and was off in the corner of Vermont. Cost to me
was a day of my time to load it and the 400miles of travel.
Allison
4 Mar
4 Mar
1:28 p.m.
On Sun, 4 Mar 2001, ajp166 wrote:
Things to consider:
Is it truly rare or uncommon.
Does an institution actually want it.
Very good point. A lot of the "official" computer museums won't take
common stuff. You can check out The Computer Museum's donation criteria
here:
http://www.computerhistory.org/contribute/index.page#artifacts
Basically, they say they won't accept any common machines anymore. They
have plenty.
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 :)
Who removes, moves and/or ships it for either
case?
A) museum may or may not...
B) You can make points by also providing that service.
Most museums will not pay for the shipping, unless it's something exotic
or crucial.
Often the "impressive deduction" is not real
and the cost to remove and
move the system is up to the owner. If there is a goal, I'd say make it
easiest for the system owner to give or sell to you.
Exactly. See above. Make sure you explain to people wanting to donate
old hardware that either they won't find anybody who'll take it or the
expense will outweigh any cash they get back on their tax return.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
8:08 p.m.
On Sun, 4 Mar 2001, Sellam Ismail wrote:
On Sun, 4 Mar 2001, ajp166 wrote:
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
Things to consider:
Is it truly rare or uncommon.
Does an institution actually want it.
Very good point. A lot of the "official" computer museums won't take
common stuff. You can check out The Computer Museum's donation criteria
here:
http://www.computerhistory.org/contribute/index.page#artifacts
Basically, they say they won't accept any common machines anymore. They
have plenty.
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 :) Who
removes, moves and/or ships it for either case?
A) museum may or may not...
B) You can make points by also providing that service.
Most museums will not pay for the shipping, unless it's something exotic
or crucial.
Often the "impressive deduction" is not
real and the cost to remove and
move the system is up to the owner. If there is a goal, I'd say make it
easiest for the system owner to give or sell to you.
Exactly. See above. Make sure you explain to people wanting to donate
old hardware that either they won't find anybody who'll take it or the
expense will outweigh any cash they get back on their tax return.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
8:48 p.m.
> 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.
5 Mar
5 Mar
3:28 a.m.
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(a)earthlink.net>
To: <classiccmp(a)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.
8612
days inactive
8613
days old
4 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
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ajp166＠bellatlantic.net -
donm＠cts.com -
edick＠idcomm.com -
foo＠siconic.com -
wmsmith＠earthlink.net