[Noisebridge-discuss] Electron Microscope

[Ian Atha]

The actual question at hand is what counts as donation. If the donator
(is that a word?) believes that the SEM is simply _stored_ at the
space (as per Andy's email) and not _donated_ then all such discussion
is invalid.

Lastly, what counts as a donation is also a gray area. For example,
can I count the hours I drove lugging Noisebridge crap from my federal
taxes? Hm...

Arguing the morality of something is distinctly different from arguing
the legality of something. I've never heard before (and I was
apparently vastly misinformed) that
everything-left-at-Noisebridge-not-at-user-shelves is a donation.

On Fri, May 28, 2010 at 16:41, Sai Emrys <noisebridge at saizai.com> wrote:
> On Fri, May 28, 2010 at 3:45 PM, Ian Atha <thatha at thatha.org> wrote:
>> Christie, please remember that unless you are a registered CPA it is
>> against the law to offer tax advice.
>
> Citation please? I don't recall CPA being protected in the same way as
> practicing law is.
>
>
> FWIW, IANACPA but I have read the relevant tax codes and the Nolo
> nonprofit book, and I'm pretty sure that Christie's morally right (in
> the math, not ethics sense of 'morally').
>
> I think it's fine to *sell* it to HackerDojo for fair market value,
> but donation would be gray-zone at best. IIRC to not raise flags you
> have to show that the donation to a for-profit entity is specifically
> in line with the nonprofit mission, they weren't given special
> consideration, there's no conflict of interest, etc etc... basically
> it's more of a PITA/risk than it's worth.
>
> Analogy: you can make a nonprofit to give money to poor people
> generically, but not to give money to Joe Hacker specifically. Giving
> things of value to for-profit entities (individual or corporate) is
> not a priori improper. It's just heavily scrutinized.
>
> See also: http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=123202,00.html
> (re non-cash donation reporting requirements)
>
> If you really really care (I don't), you can get a determination
> directly from the IRS:
> http://www.irs.gov/irb/2010-01_IRB/ar09.html#d0e9018
>
> I sympathize with wanting to get Official Answers™, and to avoid
> liability from incorrect info, but it seems unhackerly to crack down
> on unofficial-but-informed ones. :-/
>
>
> tl;dr: You can sell it to them for current market value. It's not
> worth the hassle to donate it.
>
> Larry: who at HackerDojo is actually interested in playing with it?
> More than 5? Could they, e.g. come to NB to work/play on it (thus
> getting a real answer to "who cares", and hopefully instilling some
> cooperative improvement in the process) and revisit the question of
> ownership/storage location afterwards?
>
>
> FWIW, it's not legal IMO (IANAL) for NB to have a "policy" for what in
> the space is a donation or not (that's theft; think if e.g. a bar had
> a "policy" that jackets that are left behind are considered donations
> to Goodwill). Only the donor gets to decide that, unless it's really
> abandoned property. But is that really worth yet another argument? We
> had this out a couple months ago.
>
> I guess I really should draw up & print those 'CC for stuff' stickers
> to practically resolve this...
>
> - Sai
>