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screen printing => General Screen Printing => Topic started by: Shawn (EIP) on August 17, 2011, 06:01:18 PM
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"Hello we are non profit"
"Really, well I'm not trying to be"
I want to smack these people and thier bogus write-offs and I'm a jerk for not giving 2 squids.
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Just yesterday I had to point out to a fellow looking for a new supplier for his non-profit that the requested discount on his 6-12 pieces a few times during the year would not come off of my taxes, but rather my taxable income (about an 80% difference!)
I have a feeling that I know what happened with their old supplier.
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I found out some of the awful truth about donating to charitable organizations recently via our accountant. When running a print job we only are allowed to write of for cost of sales, no labor. And guess what? Those costs are already wrote off, you know, as costs of sales. Essentially the IRS sees it as we hand the NP a bucket of ink, some emulsion and some shirts.
We print for a crap-load of non-profits so I found out I may not have been filing taxes appropriately in the past, go figure.
I'm wondering when evolutionary factors are going to catch up with our government...should be any minute now, right?
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It's funny how as we get older we discover that non-profit doesn't mean what we thought it did. There was still a lot of money and benefits going to directors, and very little to the cause. It does sound noble though...
Steve
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I know somebody that "runs" a charity. She collects money from college kids, takes around $60k a year for herself and then sends the rest on to the world hunger project.
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I know somebody that "runs" a charity. She collects money from college kids, takes around $60k a year for herself and then sends the rest on to the world hunger project.
$60K? A lightweight. Our local blood bank chairwoman was raking in a base pay of just over $300,000 with total compensation package of almost $600,000. No wonder the place was "non-profit" . . .
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One of my contractors was just asking me if that was the best I could do since it was for a non profit. I told her that doesn't mean they don't have any money, so no, I can't.
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I have also found it interesting that many non profits have the misunderstanding that whatever they buy is not taxable. I have people tell me all the time that they are not taxable because they're non profit, however in the state of CA they are taxable, only certain things are not taxable and printed shirts are not one of them... They are required to have the same (or a similar) resale permit as for profit, or if they don't have that, they can file with the government and request a special exemption for a special project.
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We have a ton of NPs in town but, what I've found is that many do pay taxes. It's confusing and we're looking into it more thoroughly for next fiscal year but, just for instance, one of our larger grocery stores in town is NP and they pay plenty of taxes but they also donate a lot. Weird huh? We print for enough of them (at a 10% discount, no less) that I'm going to audit our discounts given to see if we ought to be one as well so we can actually benefit from our charitable contributions in a more tangible way.
The IRS just views everything but the cost of sales associated with the donation as worthless and, as I mentioned before, you already "write-off" your cost of sales so in the end you only get tax deductions for tangibles that you donate it seems. I think this rule is in place to keep folks from inflating the value of their work to evade taxes which is understandable but at the same time totally lame. The work we do does help good causes and those causes were given charitable status for a reason. The gov't made that call when they incorporated them, not us, and members of those groups are allowed to compensate themselves for their work. Why everyone who helps them and that cause should not be considered worthy under the tax-man's eyes is beyond me.
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Yeah, the whole writeoff thing is dang tricky. It's nice to have a good accountant to guide you through it. We have enough write-offs in depreciation that I don't go looking for any others. I do donate to the police and some of the schools...depending if they are customers or not. It bugs me when they get their stuff elsewhere and then come to me for money.
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This should straighten you out about write-offs . . .
Seinfeld and Kramer about write-off (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEL65gywwHQ#noexternalembed)
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God... I miss that TV show. Genius.
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Y'know, maybe we're responding to the cheapskates from non-profits all wrong. Maybe we ought to suggest to them that by soaking the living sh!t out of them for their friggin' t-shirt job that we're in fact helping guarantee their non-profit status by bleeding all of the extra money out of them that we can. They should be thanking us.
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I had a lady send me and email ... She wanted to know if I could print player names on their little league football team jerseys for $3ea. She said that is what the guy used to do them for that she used , but she said he was closed due to back taxes. Duh! Printing 11 jerseys for $33 and you will owe taxes, and get your self in trouble .
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It's funny how as we get older we discover that non-profit doesn't mean what we thought it did. There was still a lot of money and benefits going to directors, and very little to the cause. It does sound noble though...
Steve
We have absolutely fantastic YMCAs (several in town) that are huge. A stunning, relatively new "BoyScouts" office building, built just for them, on a bayou, and a gorgeous couple year old building taking up an entire city block near downtown (Houston) with the name "Catholic Charities" on the marque - beautiful brickwork, not a place of worship. I've a son that got off drugs, living in a homeless shelter that looked like a sh1thole and did more good than any of these mentioned charities would have offered...along with all their executive salaries and donations. Oh, did I mention I was raised Catholic? But I'm older and wiser now.
For me, charity begins at home now. I only donate to UWay for appearances at work, because I know how they work behind the scenes. Call me a late blooming cynic.