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To: Travis_Bickle who wrote (51533)	4/6/2006 1:34:27 PM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

it's actually very hard to get criminally prosecuted you have to have screwed up in an unusually big way A former boy friend of mine got a call to appear at the IRS. He was sort of expecting the call since he sort of put off filing for about 5 years and paid no estimated even though he worked as an independent contractor and there was no withholding. He was paid very well and he used to just cash his check every week and spend it. He didn't even have a checking account. When he got the call, he immediately hired a tax lawyer to appear with him. He should have realized something was up when he entered the room and microphones were set up. At some point when the questions got a little personal he turned to his lawyer and said, "What's the big deal, I have the money, I'll pay what I owe and the penalties." The lawyer just turned to him, "These guys aren't from compliance, they're from the criminal division, they don't want your money, they want you." He never did any jail time because they realized they weren't dealing with a drug dealer, just an idiot. To this day he has no assets in his own name, not even a car.

To: Travis_Bickle who wrote (51533)	4/7/2006 4:51:13 AM
From: Amy J	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

What do you think about someone that takes a charitable deduction for money given to their son's business? It's an indirect way to keep their son employeed - by helping his business stay afloat by giving him revenue from their charity donation that goes to him. Apparently he (Neil) is not welcomed in Sand Hill Road due to his unusual business ethics so I think his Mom is doing his fishing for him. (If I asked my Dad to "help" me out like that, he would tell me to "go learn to fish" and develop my skillsets on my own, and he'd also correctly say "that type of help wouldn't be helping you, it would hurt you.") Message 22292750 ( Please ignore his political comment at the top of the post, and only focus on the technicality of the transaction - do you think this deduction transaction is legal? ) Am of the impression a charitable donation cannot directly benefit a family member in order for it to pass the deductible test. For example, you cannot deduct $200k that you give to your daughter in one calendar year. Another example is, for a charitable trust to be deductible, the IRS requires you to have no influence on how the charitable trust account is managed ("arms length away") in order to avoid the situation where you influence the investments towards something you own, indirectly own, or directly benefit from its influence. I know corporate hightech boards only permit product donations from the company itself (i.e. the company uses its own money), and doesn't permit third party donations for its own productware - in other words, the donation has to come directly from the company. Regarding your other post, why would a company have a relative on payroll if they aren't doing something? Aside from the obvious ethics issue, when you hire someone don't your costs go up, not down? Regards, Amy J