YW Moderator-42

ICOT

Good idea WIY but I don’t have time to go searching for those threads, if you want, you can post links yourself

The hat

Dash, I understand that the option is there to make it a legal sweepstakes.

I am addressing a different, although related point that many people (including snowbunny in the previous post) don’t seem to know:

Most people take for granted that a “donation” is tax deductible but this is not always true. If you get something in return than it is not tax-deductible.

The classic example of this is with dinner ads that come with a meal. If you pay $500 for an ad and get 2 free meals with it, the organization is not allowed to give you a receipt for the full $500, rather they must deduct the value of the meal. This is pashut and most organizations actually do follow this.

Where it gets less pashut is with “raffles”. According to the IRS, receiving a raffle ticket giving you a chance to win money is considered receiving something in return for your donation and therefore a raffle donation is NOT tax deductible.

(snowbunny’s thing about “if you don’t win” applies to maaser according to most poskim but the IRS doesn’t hold of that svara so it does not apply to taxes. Note also, whereas by maaser you can say that you would have otherwise spent $10 on dinner and therefore count $490 toward maaser, when it comes to taxes you have to deduct the full value of the fancy meal you received)

There are many accountants and tax lawyers who hold that if the raffle has a “no purchase necessary” option then it IS tax deductible because you aren’t getting anything extra for your donation that you wouldn’t have received otherwise. (Note I said “many” and not “all” – some say that even with the option it is not pashut which is why many tzedakas such as BMG don’t give receipts for their raffles and Chinese Auctions)

Which brings us to our question regarding the current Oorah sweepstakes. Until this year, they have had the “no purchase necessary” option and have given receipts.

But this “Million Dollar Raffle” seems to be a separate zach in which you have to donate to enter and the more you donate the more you can win. So for every dollar you give, you have a chance to win more so you are getting something in return according to the IRS. Therefore, according to my understanding of the situation, they should not be allowed to give tax receipts for this auction. V’tzarich iyun gadol.

Interesting point, as the prize is 1000 times your donation, that obviously requires a donation so there cannot be a “no purchase necessary” option. I wonder how that works in terms of being tax-deductible and legal. I always understood raffle donations to be tax-deductible only because there is a “no purchase necessary” option so therefore you are not gaining anything in return for your donation. But in this case where you gain an extra possible $1000 for every dollar donated how can it be tax-deductible?

Touch phones seen to drain battery more than others. Whatever phone you get, keep the screen brightness low to save battery life. There are other battery saving tips that can be found online.

In terms of a specific phone, now with the new Blackberry Z10 coming out, the price of older versions might go down so maybe an old Blackberry Bold or Torch would do the trick.

Popa, u also have to take into account the higher tax bracket u will be in for the one or ten years. I hope whoever wins speaks to a financial advisor before deciding.

Dash, that is not what I said. I said if the kallah’s father is a talmid chacham then you should stand for him when he enters the room with hiss daughter.

Confucious, exactly. If it is the kallah walking down with the mothers then my reasons wouldn’t apply unless you say “kallah domeh l’malka” (I don’t know either way whether we say this so I won’t comment either way). There is also ZK’s point that she is on her way to a mitzvah so you should stand for that.

Either way, I don’t think there is anything wrong with standing for the kallah (as long as you aren’t doing it to get a better look) but I also don’t know whether there is a chiyuv.

Um… Yes a mortgage can be a problem of ribbis if you were borrowing from a Jewish bank without a heter iska…

I just read the fine print in my book. First of all, it does mention “no purchase necessary” so it is a legal sweepstakes and is therefore tax deductible.

Sorry squeak, but I am with Joseph on this ribbis issue – The “million dollar prize” clearly gives a choice between 2 prizes: $500,000 or $100,000 per year for 10 years. There is no “loan” here, just a choice of 2 separate prizes. This should be no different than offering a choice between a $500 gift certificate to Target and a $1000 gift certificate to Artscroll which I have seen some raffles offer.

In terms of WIY’s issue with flashy raffles, it is called hishtadlus. If this is what it takes to get more people to give more money than kol hakavod to them for being mezakeh the rabbim in this great mitzvah of giving tzedaka to a great kiruv organization. Whether it is “worth it” is a business decision on their part which they are allowed to make as part of their hishtadlus. It is very unlikely that they are “losing” money on this. They most probably have donors backing it up who would not be giving the money otherwise.

From my experience I can tell you that Oorah does great work and I highly recommend donating to them. If you don’t like the idea of donating toward big, flashy prizes than use the “lishma” option.

WIY, maybe they think you’re OTD because you wear a bend down and no beard so they were answering politely to be mekarev you. ^_^

Good point, Queens is a suberb of Baltimore. QUoth thE ravENS, never more. ~:)

I just LOL’ed at OOM’s post ^_^

IY”H the snow will be washed away by rain later this week. I hate the snow.

Try to daven shachris before rabbeinu tam’s shkia.

I just ate a pretzel.

FYI, purplicious is not gumball as far as I can tell.

When he gets engaged to ur sis than u can find out!!!

After tikkun chatzos, I read the CR until Alos. ^_^

Haman was extremely rich. Look where that got him…