Volunteer expenses for building a tennis tournament website

Was the tournament run by a 501(c)(3) entity? Under what theory do you think expenses might be deductible?

Generally not deductible as a matter of law (violation of public policy).

The expenses of attending are.

If doing the website is deductible (perhaps as advertising for your website-building business), the internet access at the hotel should be deductible.

Seth

Note that amateur sports competitions are a qualified 501(c)(3) activity. However, with such prize money, I have to question whether this is amateur or professional.

Does your sentence apply only to the parking ticket, or to all of the

The parking ticket is not deductible.

Hotel Room, Parking, Locksmith, and 50% of meals would be, if the trip qualified.

However, if the purpose of the trip was to participate rather than to support the website (why couldn't the latter be done equally well from home?) then it's likely the trip is personal and only the Internet access deductible.

Seth

It is both. I signed up to play in the amateur divisions. The website I built was for both the amateurs and pros to follow.

My onsite presence was needed mostly for taking pictures and posting them to the website each day. But you are right, at least half the work I did could have been done remotely. But without the other half, the website would not have been acceptable at all. What do you think, can I deduct all my travel expenses except for the parking ticket of course? Or just some percentage? I don't see why my participating in the tournament should affect the deductibility of the trip.

I am not clear on why the tournament has to be a 501(c)(3)? It is being run by a for-profit health club . Aren't business expenses the same regardless of the profit status of your client?

Yes; but he was talking about deducting "volunteer time".

If he did all the work as part of his business, some of the expenses would be deductible.

If the trip was charitable, he had to spend most of his time on the charitable side. If business, it suffices that he was required to be there.

Seth

As Seth has pointed out, you are clouding the issue by talking about both "volunteer expenses" and "business expenses." Are you looking for a charitable contribution deduction on Schedule A, or a business expense deduction on Schedule C?

Since the sponsoring organization is a profit-making business, a charitable deduction seems to be out of the question. There is no charitable organization involved.

Since you didn't get paid, what makes the health club your client? How was this in any way a function of your business? For that matter, if you considered it a business undertaking, why did you do it for free? To deduct the travel expenses (hotel, parking, meals, Internet access) as business expenses, they have to have some business purpose.

Bob Sandler

Does this mean any expenses for work done pro-bono are not deductible? I dont see how whether my client paid $0, $1 or $1000 should have any impact on the deductibility of my expenses? Travelling to the tournament to produce live coverage for the website seem reasonable for any web designer who builds and mantains websites.

Now my company was mentioned as a sponsor so I did receive some recognition for my work.

wrote

As always with taxes, it depends.

I do pro-bono work for my skeet and trap club, mowing the field, cleaning up the area, etc. None of that is related to my business and none of my expenses for doing that work would be deductible by my business or by me personally.

Profit motive for starters. If the work done was related to your business, then you stand a much better chance of taking the incidental expenses as a business deduction than if the work was totally unrelated to your trade or business. If there were no instance of personal pleasure from the travel, namely you playing in the tournament, then there'd be less concern over the deduction.

Even if, while you were at teh tournament you were introduced to a comapny owner from across the state and the two of you had breakfast and discussed you doing web work for his business. That might make your meal deductible as a busisiness expense, but the whole trip costs just don't cut it.

I'd think the government would squalk at that, as the primary purpose for the travel wasn't business related.

If they told you you were prohibited from filming and braodcasting the tournament you would have been there anyway. Right? To play in the tournament.

And if they told you that you didn't qualify to participate in the tournament, would you have still gone to the tournament and filmed it for web broadcast?

You didn't go there to "build and maintain" a website, you went there to play tennis. While you were there.....you filmed the tournament and uploaded it to a website.

You do not have a legitimate agrument for taking a deduction for your travel, lodging, etc for that trip.

But you didn't have to be there to be a sponsor. If you were a sponsor and didn't get to play, would you have still gone?

You did have to be there to play in the tournament, and that makes the primary purpose one of pleasure - no deduction.

If his sponsorship was doing the website (including the live stuff), rather than a cash donation, then he did.

If my assumption is correct, then he would have some claim to it being primarily for business.

Seth

In that case, none of it's deductible - since it's not a qualified activity.

That is correct. Even if I did not play , I would have to been there in order to do the live updating of scores, pictures, news etc.

Yes becasue I am a tennis fanatic so the pleasure of watching the pros play would have been worth it. But I don't see how that has anything to do with whether my expenses are deductible .

My business is building websites. So the work done for the tournament website is entirely related to my business. I dont see how my playing in the tournament has any bearing upon this. Whether I played or not does not change the fact that my pro-bono work was 100% related to my business of website building. What am I missing here?

wrote

That sounds like you're a "volunteer" reporter, unrelated to your web design/hosting business.

Do you see how easy it is to say this is not business related. It's easy because it's not business related. You're not a reporter, off reporting on tennis activities. That is unrelated to your business activity of web design.

And that would be non-deductible personal travel.

Deductions denied, end of audit, case closed, now it gets turned over to collections.

wrote

So it's not reporting on tennis tournaments.

The direct connection between building that particular website, reporting on the tournament, etc. and having revenue.

Seth

Since when did pro bono work generate revenue?

He built a web site for someone and then went to one of their events to report on it to be published on the website. How is that not pro bono? It appears to me he is probably entitled to at least his out-of-pocket expenses - EXCEPT for the parking ticket. I write probably because I do not have all of the facts and circumstances.

Also there is case law that specifically states the personal enjoyment of performing services does not in and of itself disallow deductions for pro bono services.

If the OP sends me an e-mail, i.e., a valid e-mail address, I will send him a plethora of information on the deductibility of pro bono services. It is too large to post here.

Dick