Dog park volunteer

[dhawkcpa]

Tractor lover paid 40K for a tractor but has no farm. He uses it to mow grass at a county dog park and wants to deduct fair rental value as a charitable contribution. He says fair rental is $175 an hour and that got him over $5000. He was not happy with 14 cents per mile.
Any thoughts?

[Nashville]

No Standard Mileage Rate

Taxpayer is correct about 14 cents/mile. You don't measure tractor usage by mileage, but by hours of operation.

$175 per hour is ridiculous. A bulldozer and operator can be rented for that, easily. He needs to be aware of Form 8283 and special appraisal which attaches to deductions that large.

I would say his deduction is:
1) Noncash. Meaning Form 8283 has to be observed.
2) Limited to what he can show is his own cost of operations.

[Lion]

And his cost of operations would be his out-of-pocket cash cost of operations, right? Fuel, primarily. For his charitable percentage of use. Probably mows his own lawn, too.

[ATSMAN]

People Forget That It is Charitable!

This situation reminds me of a rather benevolent taxpayer who wanted to deduct most of his lease payments on a brand new car because he was delivering meals on wheels to shut in in my town. According to him 90% of the mileage was for that and the rest going to the grocery store! I realize there is a severe shortage of volunteers to deliver meals. When I told him we can only do mileage using the charity rate if he kept a log he completely flipped out! Became irrational so my suggestion was stop delivering meals if you don't feel charitable!

This guy was also a greeter for returning soldiers at two airports and wanted some deduction for that!

[spanel]

Tractor lover paid 40K for a tractor but has no farm. He uses it to mow grass at a county dog park and wants to deduct fair rental value as a charitable contribution. He says fair rental is $175 an hour and that got him over $5000. He was not happy with 14 cents per mile.
Any thoughts?

Are you sure the country dog park is even a qualified charity?

[taxea]

his contribution is limited to gas for the mower, allocated maintance if used other than at the dog park and mileage if he tows it on a trailer to the dog park. He cannot take depreciation as he has no income from his service and he cannot deduct labor.

[Burke]

Are you sure the country dog park is even a qualified charity?

It is a county dog park, which would mean a government entity.

[spanel]

It is a county dog park, which would mean a government entity.

That 1 letter makes a difference! I would just deduct the pro rated fuel. Why wouldn't a county owned facility not reimburse/pay him?

Chris

[FEDUKE404]

Hound dog man

This guy is creative! (A bit too early for the nuts to come out of the tax closet??)

A "tractor lover" with no farm pays $40k for a tractor? ? ?

On a day that I felt generous, and he felt like paying the tax prep fees, I would probably give him mileage for the truck (assuming he does not drive the tractor cross-county) to haul the tractor around, and the cost of the gasoline he specifically used to cut the doggy grass. I might add to that the Form 4136 credit for his tractor. . .assuming he does not already have a big ole tank of (untaxed) gasoline back at the farm. . .or was that the house?

Oh yes, I probably would make it a point to inquire strongly whether he was getting paid anything. AFTER I explained to him his "time" cannot be a factor of any contribution.

FE

[Burke]

A "tractor lover" with no farm pays $40k for a tractor? ? ? FE

I have a neighbor who did just that, and built a shed to keep it in (that matched his $1M house décor, BTW). He doesn't even cut grass. He hires people to do that with their own equipment. It even has a blade to push snow, which he also does not do.

[taxea]

But he does a sch C right? Are the people he hires employees?