"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 >
