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If I am not mistaken I am pretty sure that the company that donates the item can only claim the actual cost of the item they are auctioning and the person who wins the auction can claim what they ended up paying for the auction on there taxes.

So GW claims 50 for the rulebook and the winner can claim the 200

Of course I am no tax expert so take it with a grain of salt

What ever the motivation it still helps a charity that needs the help so that is always a good thing in my book

I'm not an expert on charitable giving tax deductions, but GW can only write off the value of what they are donating, not the total value paid by the winning bidder. More precisly, they can write that off, but they also have to declare it as income. Flying Jervis to Chicago and having him play a game with a fan would be a business expense anyway, so that's deductible as well. Here's an example:

Lot 6 cost GW $60, it retails for $100 and went for $250 in the auction. GW has a book profit of $190 (income minus expenses). Gw then donates the full $250 to charity. This gives GW a $250 deduction, for a net tax result of a $60 write off. Of course, that was GW's loss in the product in the first place. Keep in mind that GW can't deduct the value of the product, as it wasn't donated, it was sold. They might be able to write off the cost of producing the item as a business expense, but it would be aggregated in with all other production costs. If you really got nitpicky, GW might get double credit for both a contribution and an inventory write off, but GW does also lose the value of the item. It's a pretty minor benefit (and cost GW the value of the item), not exactly a double profit.

What's a little sucky is that GW is conducting the sale themselves, rather than acting as a conduit for a Make a Wish auction. If they had donated the items to them, and then promoted thier auction on their website, the winner would be able to deduct anything above MSRP as a deduction. That is a little odd, but not exactly scandelous.

ancientsociety wrote:I don't want to go too much off on a tangent but my problem with this type of thing, Magickal, has nothing to do with who gets "credit" for it.
<SNINP> it in my own name, and then claim a tax credit for it.

anyway, end rant

Hope I didn't offend you, Ancient. If I did, I apologize.
I was making more of a general blanket statement. I fully expected that some of the people in the thread wouldn't fit the bill for it.

You know I still love that little red head of yours. Right?
-In a totally heterosexual, NON "closeted gay" way, of course-
LOL

Honestly, I was more trying to change the direction of the thread, and I'm glad I did.
Everyone seemed to be reaming GW. I just wanted to give people something to think of for a moment.

I'm glad to see you donate to charities. More people should.
Make-A-Wish happens to be my charity of choice.

My problem is the profiteering off charitable tax credits by corporations by channeling their customers' money and the marketing spin of "charitable giving" by corporations.

I see your point. Honestly, I don't care if they get a good marketing spin off of it. IMO, they deserve it for the good work they're doing by raiging the money, since it's money that probably wouldn't have gone to the charity otherwise. As far as the profiteering goes... If GW manages to squeeze some deductions out of this effort, I'm okay with that, too. After all, that Charity still "won" for their effort and companies (especially GW) need to make a profit... Especially in THIS economy.

Cheers!

Eric

I absolutely would if I were going to be at that GT.

MagickalMemories wrote:
Hope I didn't offend you, Ancient. If I did, I apologize.
I was making more of a general blanket statement. I fully expected that some of the people in the thread wouldn't fit the bill for it.

Nah, nobody offended me. I can see the other side of the argument and it's great that GW is doing this. My point wasn't to slag GW (christ, I'm staying up til midnight every night this week just to finish some of their Orks for Games Day Chicago, much to my wife's displeasure), it was more a general dislike for these types of auctions in general.

Anyway, carry on everyone.

(BTW, Eric, I understand your totally platonic ginger love)

Somnicide wrote:I absolutely would if I were going to be at that GT.

You mean Gamesday. Chicago GT is in Orktober.

Right, I am not doing either of those. Furthest East I am willing to travel is Vegas ;-)

I'd be willing to do it. I think it would be fun. Now if they really want the big bucks to roll in they would say the game would be covered in White Dwarf as a battle report. Now that's some money that would roll in right there.

Oh, if it would be covered in WD, I'd have to bring my all-naked-chicks army (aka, slaanesh daemons). That'd be hilarious. My wife is encouraging me to make a serious bid at this...

General Hobbs wrote:

Somnicide wrote:I absolutely would if I were going to be at that GT.

You mean Gamesday. Chicago GT is in Orktober.

Hi General

The game against Jervis is scheduled for the Friday night before the Chicago GT on Orktober, not this Friday night before Chicago Games Day.

Cheers
Dave

Redbeard wrote:Oh, if it would be covered in WD, I'd have to bring my all-naked-chicks army (aka, slaanesh daemons). That'd be hilarious. My wife is encouraging me to make a serious bid at this...

Holy !

Do me a favor... Pull your wife aside, look RIGHT into her eyes and tell her that all the geeks on DakkaDakka said, "Thank you for giving us hope that there really are women like you out there."

Eric

Hmm, the website didn't update with my high bid I emailed in last night. Jervis is ducking me :(

Play Jervis Johnson, What do you do? Well you BEAT him of course! Of course its sweet and nice that GW does auctions for charity, but why would meeting any of them employees get to be WORTH anything? It's not! We all have as many brains and good ideas as they do, so if we play them, we aren't wionning the "prize", they are winning the prize be getting to play, us, and then getting another prize when our uber army smashes theirs.... heh, hehe, hehe!!!!

Polonius wrote:I'm not an expert on charitable giving tax deductions, but GW can only write off the value of what they are donating, not the total value paid by the winning bidder. More precisly, they can write that off, but they also have to declare it as income. Flying Jervis to Chicago and having him play a game with a fan would be a business expense anyway, so that's deductible as well. Here's an example:

Lot 6 cost GW $60, it retails for $100 and went for $250 in the auction. GW has a book profit of $190 (income minus expenses). Gw then donates the full $250 to charity. This gives GW a $250 deduction, for a net tax result of a $60 write off. Of course, that was GW's loss in the product in the first place. Keep in mind that GW can't deduct the value of the product, as it wasn't donated, it was sold. They might be able to write off the cost of producing the item as a business expense, but it would be aggregated in with all other production costs. If you really got nitpicky, GW might get double credit for both a contribution and an inventory write off, but GW does also lose the value of the item. It's a pretty minor benefit (and cost GW the value of the item), not exactly a double profit.

What's a little sucky is that GW is conducting the sale themselves, rather than acting as a conduit for a Make a Wish auction. If they had donated the items to them, and then promoted thier auction on their website, the winner would be able to deduct anything above MSRP as a deduction. That is a little odd, but not exactly scandelous.

All of this depends on where the auction is taking place (US or outside US). Europe and the UK both have different tax codes. Charitable contributions (CCs) are not always recognized the same way as the US.

You will need to refer to SS 170(e) to see if it meets the criteria as a majority of the items on here are related to inventory. Ordinarily you will be able to deduct the cost of the inventory and 1/2 of the gain that would have been realized had the inventory been sold. The deduction cannot be more than twice the Adjusted Basis of the inventory had it been sold. The limitations on CCs are as follows:
Maximum amount recognized is 10% of the Company's AGI
The AGI is prior to any tax items such NOL Carrybacks, capital loss carrybacks, dividends received deductions, the CC itself, BUT after any NOL Carryforwards.
CC's can be carried forward for 5 years, aftwards they are forfeit and you must use 100% of your current year CC before you can apply any CC Carryforward.
As for the Jervis auction, they will get to deduct the man's salary and cost to get him there as a CC, unless they give it a price (in which they take that as their contribution and expense the rest).

Your example from above:
Retail Price: $100
Inventory Cost: $60
Profit: $40
Auction Price: $250

The CC for the inventory item would be $80 [$80= $60 + .5 ($40)]. The benefit here is that the inventory item would be worth more than if it were written off (write off being the Inventory Cost of $60) but less than if it were sold.

As an individual, you get to deduct the amount in excess of MSRP as your charitable contribution.

No GW could not get double credit- its either donated as a CC or its written off. Doubling up on a write off would be unethical and can cost many of GW's tax accountants license (both their CPA if they are in the US or CA if they are in the UK). If you haven't noticed in the news lately, the IRS has recently put their teeth back in and has started making examples of companies (and individuals) making poor choices on their tax returns.

Besides, you get to "buy" something special and help make the wish of a dying child come true.

boyd wrote:Accounting/legal pwnage

So the evil soulless corporations aren't making double windfall profits at the expense of the worker and investing them in the war machine while keeping everyone blind?

That's fantastic.

@Boyd, you and your fancy facts are not welcome here on Dakka. We don't take too kindly to folks that dispell our illusions of GW as the anti-Christ company.

In other words, don't go confusing us with facts and such.

I put in a bid, and at 7:25 I was still the high bid. Anyone beat me?

I think it would be hilarious if the person who wins brings a tooled up list with the intent of creaming Jervis, and then Jervis also brings some crazy power list to the game and ends up dominating.

Unlikely, I know, but it would make me chuckle.

"You know how WD always says that I lose a lot? Lies."

MegaDave wrote:I put in a bid, and at 7:25 I was still the high bid. Anyone beat me?

Not me. I called around 7:20, and it was already past what I was willing to pay. ($250)

Hopefully someone will ram home the point that 'Standard Bearer' is the biggest waste of space in White Dwarf since sliced bread. Most articles have some sort of meaning, but this is just empty journalism.

Anti-Mag wrote:Hopefully someone will ram home the point that 'Standard Bearer' is the biggest waste of space in White Dwarf since sliced bread. Most articles have some sort of meaning, but this is just empty journalism.

Yea, that'll go over well.

Jervis and MegaDave: Good game.
MegaDave:: Anti-Mag wanted me to tell you that your White Dwarf article sucks
*Arkward silence*

DragonPup wrote:

Anti-Mag wrote:Hopefully someone will ram home the point that 'Standard Bearer' is the biggest waste of space in White Dwarf since sliced bread. Most articles have some sort of meaning, but this is just empty journalism.

Yea, that'll go over well.

Jervis and MegaDave: Good game.
MegaDave:: Anti-Mag wanted me to tell you that your White Dwarf article sucks
*Arkward silence*

Confused Jervis: Anti-Mag?

MegaDave: He's from DakkaDakka.
Jervis: Oh... *arkward silence*

'' They get like that away from the censors...''

Anti-Mag wrote:Hopefully someone will ram home the point that 'Standard Bearer' is the biggest waste of space in White Dwarf since sliced bread. Most articles have some sort of meaning, but this is just empty journalism.

Standard bearer isn't bad. jj him self shows how little work he puts into a codex.

Maybe we can all be like that one day

Yeah I bid $300, I think I got it. No official confirmation yet, but I am really looking forward to it!

I want Malfred to play him so we can get a standard bearer article on the general utility of man-purses.

If this was in my town (Brisbane, Oz) I'd bid. But I don't think its worth travelling a long way for.

I wonder what week 7 will bring...