Re: Running a Tor Server as a Tax Deduction?

[Ringo <2600denver@xxxxxxxxx>]

"I'm not a CPA, but as I understand it, you need to give actual
valuables to a 501c3"

Valuables can include lots of things. I know of companies who have
donated inventory, labor, and all sorts of services and then deducted it
on their taxes. I'm not sure if a Tor server would fall within in,
especially considering both the donator and the Tor Project has to
maintain a record of this.

If it's possible to deduct Tor servers, maybe the Tor project can have a
"special donor" program for people/organizations/companies who donate
large amounts of resources, their internet connection, or other
quantifiable amounts.

Ringo

Brian Puccio wrote:
> On Jul 8, 2009, at 1:44 AM, Ringo wrote:
> 
>> Hey,
>>
>> I was thinking about how to get more companies/organizations to run Tor
>> servers and then it hit me that maybe the expenses associated with doing
>> so could be taken as a tax exemption. It's hard to convince a company to
>> run a Tor server, but if it's in their financial interest, you might
>> have a little more leveragee.
>>
>> Do people think that running a Tor server could be seen as a donation to
>> the Tor Project (which is a 501(c)(3) charity IIRC)? Or is this kind of
>> like deducting mojitos as "business drinks"? Obviously I'm not looking
>> for advice from a CPA/accountant (although that would be great), just
>> wondering based on people's personal knowledge of tax law. If people
>> think it's worth looking into (or maybe possible), I'd be happy to hire
>> a CPA/tax expert and talk with them about it. I just thought I'd ask
>> here before throwing my money away ; )
>>
>> Ringo
> 
> I asked about three and a half years ago and got this response:
> 
> On Jan 30, 2006, at 7:15 PM, Roger Dingledine wrote:
> 
>> On Mon, Jan 30, 2006 at 07:07:58PM -0500, Brian Puccio wrote:
>>> I know you aren't CPAs, but I was wondering if the following question
>>> was ever posed: can one consider running a tor server (a few hundred GB
>>> a month, maybe as much as a TB) a donation for purposes of tax
>>> deductions? I know it's a stretch, but I was just wondering. Thanks for
>>> your time!
>>
>> I'm not a CPA, but as I understand it, you need to give actual
>> valuables to a 501c3, and they need to register them, include
>> them in their books, and so on.
>>
>> In any case, Tor is not one of those.
>>
>> The best I could imagine is to call your bandwidth use a business expense
>> in your schedule C, if that makes sense for your business.
>>
>> --Roger
>