cash / in-kind donations

[astrorob]

i noticed a while back that jchodera was soliciting cash donations for the project on twitter, and mentioned that any donation would be tax-deductable.

has anyone looked into whether or not the electricity used to run FAH simulations might be tax-deductible with their accountant? my electricity bill this year at true-up was pretty huge and because of my solar/energy monitoring i could probably figure out (to within10%) how much money i spent folding proteins in 2020. in fact it was so much that i decided i should retire from the project especially since PG&E is really about to turn the screws on us solar owners.

anyone ever tried this? or is it just a recipe for an audit?

[Joe_H]

This question has been asked a number of times in the past, a search on the forum should turn up some of the prior discussion. Essentially it will take talking with a tax accountant or lawyer thoroughly familiar with the applicable tax codes in your jurisdictions - local, state, and country. Records would have to be kept of exactly what was used for F@h, and did not benefit you in other ways such as heating. Estimates probably would not be good enough.

[bruce]

Deductions for a Home Office have been abused and always get special attention from the IRS. With Zoom and other methods allowing you to work from home, I expect that the home offices will get extra attention. Be prepared to prove that your home office was never used for anything except for your job.

The same applies to FAH's electricity. In my humble opinion (I'm not a tax expert ) the deduction will be small and it's not worth the potential trouble in a year or two when you've forgotten the details or lost the supporting data.

[astrorob]

sorry for not searching better; i was not sure of the right keywords. i will look again.

i mean, you know the kind of people we tend to be. while i didn't put kill-a-watts on any machine, i do have a zigbee device monitoring my grid consumption and i have 5 years of prior data. i know how many machines and video cards i had running as well, and for how long. anyway the amount is not so small; it's pushing $1000. compared to my income that is not much but i guess with situations like this it's always the principle of the thing. in truth i doubt it would get me audited but since there's nothing else to see on my tax return it would probably just remedied by dropping the deduction.

as far as home office / etc, there's nothing to prove. i am retired...