[Dixielandjazz] Promoting

Wed Feb 20 14:54:02 PST 2008

a tax break for each of us, and the station will get a decent payment too.
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Just a thought - if this isn't Public Radio then I would tend to doubt it's 
tax exempt status not that it might not be exempt.  Religious stations may 
have this type of exemption.

I would check with someone who does taxes  to see if you can legally claim a 
tax deduction for services in this case especially since both people you and 
the person donating money could possibly claim the same deduction.  Services 
are a very sticky thing to deduct.  You can of course deduct any expenses 
you have in playing the gig such as mileage, cleaning and some incidentals 
but your labor may not be deductible.

I know that some of you don't like H&R Block but they will answer questions 
like this free.

The question arises what are your services worth?  This is really subjective 
legally.  Let's say the station wants to deduct the advertising that they 
give to you.  They can deduct all the expenses that they pay such as the 
light bill and the salary of the DJ and the prorated salaries of all the 
people associated and other incidentals but what about the station's profit? 
The station manager would of course value it at three million dollars.  The 
IRS would say NOT!!!

The IRS really doesn't count your labor when you choose to donate it.  If 
they did then everyone who volunteered at a church or hospital would be 
deducting their donation.   Let's say that the client gave you the check and 
you in turn donated it to the station.  In that case you would show the 
income on one side of the ledger and then the donation on the other side of 
the ledger which would zero out.  Let's say you have to hire a piano player 
to complete the gig.  His pay would be deductible by you but then you would 
be on the minus side of the ledger.

This year I donated $1000 out of my business in actual cash.  I have a 
cancelled check to a legitimate institution and it cost me real money.  That 
is 100% deductible.  I have donated my band's services before but I have 
written checks to the side men and those were deductible.  Again that was an 
actual negative cash flow and a real donation.  I try real hard to not 
"donate" someone else's time.

I would check with someone reliable (like the IRS or a real tax person) to 
see if you can really do this before you do it.

If they actually do promote your band you could justify doing it for the 
chance to be seen by maybe a large number of people.  People who donate 
money to PBS are good prospects for a band.  Only experience would tell you.

Did you have the opportunity to put a minimum value on the group?  I'm sorry 
if you go out for a dollar that sort of defeats the purpose.  What do other 
groups go for?

Don't be daunted by the other bands.  There are many people out there who 
don't want rock, rap or anything like it.  Just the fact that you are 
different may actually raise your price.

Doing it is the only way that you will find out if it helps you or not.  My 
guess is that the benefit will be marginal.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "eupher dude" <eupher61 at hotmail.com>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Monday, February 18, 2008 8:56 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Promoting

A local public radio station, non-NPR, has an auction where bands donate a 
gig to raise money for the station.  Lots of rock bands of all ilks (and 
acks!), a few jazz groups, some that can't be labeled take part.

But, I don't think that would be a good fit for OKOM.  Maybe I'm wrong, 
maybe I'll try it next time around.

But, the local PBS station does an auction too, as yours probably does (US 
of course...)

So, after a couple weeks of phone tag, Misbehavin' is finally in the queue 
to be listed as an auction item.  The auction will be for a 1 hour 
performance, the auction price paid will be ONLY for 1 hour.  If the buyer 
wants more from us, they'll pay us directly.  IT is subject to our 
scheduling availability, and must be used by September or sometime like 
that. (The auction is in April.)

It sounds like they'll put us on the on-line portion of the auction, with 
some on the air teasers to get people going to look.  So, the MySpace page 
will get a couple of videos too, as soon as we can work the specifics out, 
and round up the video gear.

If this works, and I think it will, it'll be good PR for Misbehavin', a tax 
break for each of us, and the station will get a decent payment too.  I 
can't figure out that there's no one who doesn't win on this!

Whadya think??

steve
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