Washington east side deer

[bearpaw]

  I'm curious which tag you guys bought too?

I was going to bid on a couple tags for myself and a friend but they all went higher than usual. We decided to wait and see if we can draw or get landowner tags. I have 13 elk points, but probably not quite enough for a pretty good tag, the point creep is a killer.

[Bean Counter]

ts a tax deductible expense

Be careful here. I believe you are only partially correct. 

I've always wondered about that.  Is there a PLR or something on the subject from the IRS?  How do you determine what is FMV?

"Pigs get fatter, hogs get slaughtered."

you'd be surprised what you can get away with. I don't mean "get away with" as in wink wink, nod nod, foot tap... go conceal your assets or underreport income or any blatantly fraudulent crap like that. The operative word in FMV is "fair." IRS is not the Boone and Crocket Club. They will roll up their sleeves and investigate if they're teeing up on a big case but for the most part they will accept returns as prepared if it seems fair and reasonable. Transfers of large, onerous estates between generations get particularly cumbersome but are a great example of when its prudent to pay some blood sucking CPA $265+ an hour 

If I bid $37,000 on a hunt at a benefit auction, say a mule deer hunt on Antelope Island, and I could print out three guide advertisements showing an average price of $20,000 for the same hunt, I would claim a $17,000 charitable deduction on Schedule A and tell my grandma I did it. Just make sure your receipt shows that the organization is a 501(c)3. If your cashier at Starbucks asks if you'd like to add $3 to your bill to buy a book in support of child literacy, that is not a tax deductible contribution. Better to confirm before writing your check or bidding for that matter 

Remember also that private letter rulings (PLRs) are not binding upon anybody but the particular taxpayer who requested the ruling and IRS. You can't cite them as authoritative in an audit or trial: "Bill over there deducted it..." PLRs are published as a part of FOIA and are useful in reading the reasoning of IRS in treatment of a particular transaction, but a Rev. Proc. is generally accepted as the lowest level of administrative law that can be cited as authoritative. PLR is well below that threshold.

[Alchase]

I love it. The Governors tags are auctioned of to very wealthy, out-of-state people, but, disabled resident hunters, get the absolute worst areas and times to hunt....................no wonder I don't like the WDFW. Conservation or not, B.S.

I could not have said it better.
Bring those (Auction for the rich only) tags back into the state, put them in a $20 per ticket lottery for hunters who have a valid WA state license and it would only take 1000 people to buy a chance at a once in a lifetime experience to equal what that tag goes for in SLC.
Tell me again it is about the money going to WDFW.
Sorry I think this is disgusting, the two best tags in Washington and only the rich can play.

[jackelope]

I love it. The Governors tags are auctioned of to very wealthy, out-of-state people, but, disabled resident hunters, get the absolute worst areas and times to hunt....................no wonder I don't like the WDFW. Conservation or not, B.S.

I could not have said it better.
Bring those (Auction for the rich only) tags back into the state, put them in a $20 per ticket lottery for hunters who have a valid WA state license and it would only take 1000 people to buy a chance at a once in a lifetime experience to equal what that tag goes for in SLC.
Tell me again it is about the money going to WDFW.
Sorry I think this is disgusting, the two best tags in Washington and only the rich can play.

With all due respect, campmeat's comments were off the mark and we already also have raffle tags that are aimed at what you want. They're the same exact tags with the same exact dates and restrictions. I don't disagree with your thoughts and I don't agree with our current raffle systems, but we already have a raffle system and that's a different thread.

[Bob33]

Bring those (Auction for the rich only) tags back into the state, put them in a $20 per ticket lottery for hunters who have a valid WA state license and it would only take 1000 people to buy a chance at a once in a lifetime experience to equal what that tag goes for in SLC.

What would prevent the rich guy from buying all 1000 tickets?

[Alchase]

One ticket per Wild ID, not hard to do.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Bring those (Auction for the rich only) tags back into the state, put them in a $20 per ticket lottery for hunters who have a valid WA state license and it would only take 1000 people to buy a chance at a once in a lifetime experience to equal what that tag goes for in SLC.

What would prevent the rich guy from buying all 1000 tickets?

Why limit it to 1,000 tickets. If a guy buys 1,000 tickets and a thousand other people buy one ticket, he has a better chance of winning, but it's not guaranteed. And you're trying to raise money for game management aren't you? Sort of like the lottery when it gets up to a hundred million. You don't see some rich guy buying a million tickets because there may be 50 million or more other tickets being sold which lowers his chances, and even if he wins he may have to split the winning more than once.

[Bob33]

Bring those (Auction for the rich only) tags back into the state, put them in a $20 per ticket lottery for hunters who have a valid WA state license and it would only take 1000 people to buy a chance at a once in a lifetime experience to equal what that tag goes for in SLC.

What would prevent the rich guy from buying all 1000 tickets?

Why limit it to 1,000 tickets. If a guy buys 1,000 tickets and a thousand other people buy one ticket, he has a better chance of winning, but it's not guaranteed. And you're trying to raise money for game management aren't you? Sort of like the lottery when it gets up to a hundred million. You don't see some rich guy buying a million tickets because there may be 50 million or more other tickets being sold which lowers his chances, and even if he wins he may have to split the winning more than once.

If there is no limit on tickets, the poor guys aren't going to buy as many. It's bad enough having 1 in a 1000 chances. If you're asking someone to pay $20 for a 1 in 10,000 chance, I suspect you'll get less interest.

[WAcoueshunter]

One ticket per Wild ID, not hard to do.

At $20, you wouldn't sell 1,000 tickets at one ticket per WILD ID.  Heck, with the sky's the limit on ticket purchases at $6, the mule deer raffle only raised $18K last year (3,030 tickets x $6). 

Using the raffle method, they raise $18K for conservation.  Using the auction method, they raise $29K.  If your goal is funding, which is better?   

[Bob33]

One ticket per Wild ID, not hard to do.

At $20, you wouldn't sell 1,000 tickets at one ticket per WILD ID.  Heck, with the sky's the limit on ticket purchases at $6, the mule deer raffle only raised $18K last year (3,030 tickets x $6). 

Using the raffle method, they raise $18K for conservation.  Using the auction method, they raise $29K.  If your goal is funding, which is better?   

$18K minus costs to run the raffle, versus collecting a check from one buyer at an auction.

[baldopepper]

Guess I'm not sure why the states use a third party (the expo) to auction off these permits.  Last figures I saw were from 2012.  Permits auctioned off for a little over 1,000,000 total, of which SFW claimed aprox. 600,000 in expense and 400,000 went to conservation.  60% auction fee seems pretty high to me. I won't get into any more on the SFW, but don't think they're good for the everyday sportsman.  Just my 

[Bean Counter]

60% is financial sodomy.

20-30% tops is more like it.

[idahohuntr]

Guess I'm not sure why the states use a third party (the expo) to auction off these permits.  Last figures I saw were from 2012.  Permits auctioned off for a little over 1,000,000 total, of which SFW claimed aprox. 600,000 in expense and 400,000 went to conservation.  60% auction fee seems pretty high to me. I won't get into any more on the SFW, but don't think they're good for the everyday sportsman.  Just my 

It is bewildering to a lot of hunters that a sham organization like SFW is allowed to do what they do to sportsmen.  I still can't believe Utah sportsmen aren't lining up at the capitol with pitch forks.

[Quarter Pounder]

Big money put towards conservation in our state.

    

Who ensures that it does, in fact, go towards conservation? 

[baldopepper]

A lot of that "conservation money" has been known to flow into the campaign budgets of politicians who look favorably on SFW's endeavors.  I would really hate to see them get a foothold in this state. I wonder if anyone knows what percentage WDFW actually got for the permit they donated.  (if anything at all)