Posted on 10/31/2008 3:02:59 PM PDT by ChiefJayStrongbow
If "pro-bono" legal work could be taxed, then organizations such as the ACLU, Sierra Club, ACORN, etc. would need to declare this help as income and report it to the IRS. Also, anyone assisted by the ACLU would have to report this help as income, and would be taxed on it.
It might go a long way towards limiting the number of lawsuits filed.
You can't be serious.
Encouraging more taxation, even on things we dislike, is never the answer. It becomes a wicked slippery slope. Maybe they will start to tax me on the sense of well being my church provides.
No, because those organizations are likely tax-exempt with a 501(3)c status.
OTOH, if you do some carpentry for a little plumbing work, they'll want to tax both you and the plumber for that income.
Drop it, Chief.
Seriously.
501(c)(3) is the proper designation.
A significant amount of their money comes from government grants.
Isn’t it imputed income? If they didn’t provide the services for free the client would have to pay for it.
Some organizations that get the befefit are 501c3s but most of the support goes to individuals and groups that aren’t non profits. Their status doesn’t matter the client who gets the services status does matter.
If I set-up a 501(c)3 to perform legal services, I’m pretty sure that those services are considered to be taxable income to the recipient. I don’t know any FReeper tax attorneys, though.
Some of the replies to you seem to think that you are saying the organizations would be taxed. I believe you are saying those receiving the services would be taxed.
This is a possible good tactic. This is sort of Alinsky-like. You take the premise of the enemy, in this case, paying taxes is good, and you press it to the max and apply it to their own sacred cows.
Excellent idea perhaps.
Pro boner tax?
A brief search indicates that pro-bono legal services can be taxable to the recipient if the IRS determines that the provider received value in return for the service. “Quid pro quo” arrangements - I’ll write your will, you clean my house - are considered barter transactions and are taxable to both parties.
Only if they tell the feds about it. If you do “under the table” work, or “barter”, you’re supposed to compute the taxes from any estimated gains, or something like that. Like I’m actually going to let them in on that little secret.
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