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IRS doesn't like Herbstreit burning down his house.

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by franticscribe, Jul 24, 2009.

  1. Stoney

    Stoney Well-Known Member

    Good point. It's not like it's just the evil IRS trying to take ole Herbie's money, people lose sight of what's actually lost when too many guys with crafty tax attorneys cash in on these loopholes. If he doesn't pay it, we do. And if neither of us pay it, a lot of folks lose their jobs and services get cut.

    The amount Herbstreit would get back if he's allowed this deduction would fund the annual salaries of several teachers. Personally, I'm thinking having those teachers might be worth more than Herbie getting a huge tax break for a donation that cost him nothing and saved him tens of thousands.
     
  2. Trouser_Buddah

    Trouser_Buddah Active Member

    Are you really that naive? There will ALWAYS be people looking for ways to keep a little more money, regardless of the tax code's fairness.
     
  3. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    The one point that seems to be missed by many here is that what Herbsteit did was perfectly legal and has been allowed for years.

    Until the IRS decided to change the rules and not tell anybody.

    To that I say, Fuck. the. IRS.
     
  4. Simon_Cowbell

    Simon_Cowbell Active Member

    No.

    Fuck people who try to get over on the rest of us.
     
  5. Stoney

    Stoney Well-Known Member

    No, it was not perfectly legal. It's legality was perfectly undetermined before, just as it is now. IRS policy is not law, and no legal precedent binding the IRS has yet been established to answer this question (although I'm guessin the courts will be addressing it soon).

    The fact that the IRS was letting people get away with this in years past does not mean it was an appropriate use of the provision. Perhaps the problem is with the folks running the IRS before not doing their job correctly, and they're now just doing what they always should've to ensure that this deduction is being used for its intended purposes, instead of as a loophole enabling some wealthy folks to escape paying taxes.
     
  6. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    But fuck the IRS anyway on general principles.
     
  7. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    IRS tweaks about 23,000 things every year. The things they tweak that affect 0.0001% of taxpayers usually do not get publicized.

    So you call them --- as I did when I was dickering with the Foreign Income Exclusion a few months ago --- if you have anything that will obviously raise a red flag.
     
  8. Community service announcement: Next time your odometer goes over 250,000 miles from all the time spent driving to assignments, donate the bag of bolts to your local fire department. You'll get a letter saying Mr. Scribe made a $700 donation, and they get practice cutting up a car. Dewey, Cheatem and Howe can deduct that for you. At least I did, and the statute of limitations ran out.
     
  9. zagoshe

    zagoshe Well-Known Member

    Oh I see - the budget shortfalls are due to a lack of people paying taxes and not say, the trillions wasted on idiocy like wars against unidentified enemies based on silly false premises that they are making us free, billions wasted on hair-brained handout schemes and boondoggles designed to put money into pockets of people who fund campaigns and billions wasted on countless other "essential" expenditures, like, you know, private jets for our legislators and executives to fly around the country and meet at resorts because apparently their offices in Washington D.C. are not capable of conducting business in........ ::)

    Give me a fucking break.

    We have budget shortfalls because the idiots who are supposed to be running the ship are clueless, greedy and have no problem wasting billions on their little pet projects and silly wars and to argue otherwise is just being dishonest.
     
  10. Pastor

    Pastor Active Member

    I can see a tax deduction for donating the house, though not for the full value of the property since the Herbstreits still retain ownership of it. I can also see a deduction for paying for the cleanup of the debris. I don’t think that $330k is a proper amount for a deduction here, but they should receive something.
     
  11. Twoback

    Twoback Active Member

    The house he bought might have been worth 330,000, but is it worth that much to the fire department to burn it down?
    Hate to take the IRS side on things, but that seems like a stretch.
     
  12. Twoback

    Twoback Active Member

    If I buy a sportcoat for $500 and then donate it to Goodwill 6-7 years later, I don't get to claim a deduction for $500.
    I'll hope you're in the opposite chair if I ever get audited, but you're flat wrong.
     
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