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Tax Deduction Qualified Organization

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Topic: Tax Deduction Qualified Organization

Posted By: Guests
Subject: Tax Deduction Qualified Organization
Date Posted: 2/18/05 at 12:31am

I am starting a private for-profit theatre company that will pay its
actors and staff a portion of the income from its productions. The
company will be classified as an S-class corporation but will NOT be
non-profit.  My question is this:  Can sponsors make charitable
donations to this organization and have them be 100% tax-deductible
since a community theatre most likely falls under the IRS category of
an educational organization (IRS Publication 526, page 2)?  And, what
forms must I file with the IRS to secure the status of being said
Qualified Organization?  I want to make sure that my sponsors can
donate with the knowledge that their donation is legally
tax-deductible.  If it helps, the staff of this theatre company will
receive less than 5% of the profit from the proceeds of the
productions.

Replies:

Posted By: dougb
Date Posted: 2/18/05 at 11:45am

First, I am not an attorney or accountant but here goes:

I doubt that any donations you receive would be tax deductible. There are several reasons for this but the easiest to understand is that any profits of your corporation will go to the owners (stock holders). If your corporation makes any money any donation made goes to the bottom line which ends up (at some point) in the pockets of the owners. Think of a company that has $10,000 in income and $9,000 in expenses for a profit of $1,000. Now let me make a donation of $1,000. Now your income is $11,000 and your expenses are still $9,000 so your profit is $2,000. Even if you do not distribute any of the profits to the owners, the company is still worth something (the money in the bank, the hardware you own, etc.) and when you sell the company, or just go out of business someone will put some money in their pocket. The IRS doesn't want that money to come from tax deductible donations.

The real advantage of the 501(c)(3) status with the IRS is that the DONOR can rely on that status to insure that their donation is tax deductible. An interesting sideline is that the DONOR is still responsible to make sure that your 501(c)(3) is still valid. Every three months the IRS publishes a list of changes to the 501(c)(3) list and if an organization has been taken off the list, it is up to the donor to be aware of it.

Donors can still get a tax deduction for a donation to organizations that do charitable work (yet do not have their 501(c)(3)) but it is up to the DONOR to prove that their donation was used for charitable purposes. Suppose your for-profit company does charitable things (like education or the arts) but also does non charitable things (pays 5% of the profits to the employees), how does a DONOR prove to the IRS that their donation went to a charitable purpose? Money is fungible - as soon as it goes into the checking account it all looks the same. The explanation that your company spends some (or most) of their money on charitable projects will not work for the IRS - the DONOR must prove that their SPECIFIC dollars went to a charitable purpose. There is no way to do this unless the donor pays the money directly to the charitable purpose. The donor then ends up with the whole responsibility that the end project was charitable. For example, suppose that the donor pays the room rent for a class on acting (probably a charitable purpose). The donor then has the responsibility to prove to the IRS that what was actually covered in the class was the proper purpose. The donor has to prove to the IRS that your company did not make a profit off the class and on and on - basically impossible to do. Without a 501(c)(3) status there is no way that you can do that for them.

Sorry

Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 2/18/05 at 12:01pm

Ok, thank you very much.

That was my fear, as well, but finding these types of clear answers is very difficult. Even lawyers aren't too well versed on this issue, I've learned.

I was hoping to avoid a Board of Directors, but that looks like the way I will need to go (501 c3, that is)

Any ideas from anyone else?

Thanks,
Jacen

Posted By: Scott B
Date Posted: 2/18/05 at 11:39pm

I'm not as well versed in the NPO status as Doug. But what I do know is that any business can write off advertising expenses. If you're selling ads in your program it can be written off as an expense. The problem is that you're probably not going to be selling any five-hundred or thousand dollar ads to any businesses.

Most businesses have money set aside for grants ... or like to be able to show that they are giving back to the community by providing donations to a charitible group / non-profit organization / arts, etc.

We were able to get a $2500 grant from the city, which is enormous around here. It basically paid our royalties for Forever Plaid. (Still our highest attended show.)

Had I not ended up taking over the presidency of our local community theatre I may have started my own "for profit" group. In retrospect it's probably best that I didn't.

Which ever way you decide to go, I wish you the best of luck. We all seem to be a bunch of dreamers ... it's nice when the dream comes true.

Scott

Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 2/19/05 at 7:27pm

I want to go the for-profit route, not to make money.

I'll likely net about $400 per show, if that.

I want to do it for creative control, and I don't mean control in a strong or negative sense.

I've done twelve shows in the past ten years at our local community non-profit theatre (that I love). I serve on the board and maintain the website http://www.romelittletheatre.com - http://www.romelittletheatre.com

But, I want new avenues and opportunities to supplement the volunteer aspect. I want to pay people for their HARD work.

Jacen