by Tdarcos » Sat Aug 27, 2022 6:06 am
Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: ↑Fri Dec 12, 2014 3:58 pm
The price is insane, though, I will give you that. I got a $6000 tax return a few years ago and used $5500 of it for the Tron pin. The thing is, though, Stern (the manufacturer) employs a lot of people. I like that they exist.
Plus you got to again write off the $5,500 on your taxes, clever. Oh wait, you didn't because it's a "hobby" and hobby expenses are not deductible? You mean you didn't open "Ice Cream Jonsey's Pinball store" where you buy and sell pinball machines? Remember this: if you treat a hobby as a business, e.g. keep records on income (if any) vs. expenses, and kept records of your inventory, your hobby is now a business which the losses (and profits, if any) can be reported on schedule C, and you have three years to make a profit before the IRS can classify it as a hobby (rather than a business) and disallow the deduction. But, hey, if you don't make money in three years, you close down that business and start a new one! This is America, you can start a new business amytime. So switch from the pinball business to the electronic video game business, and start a new three-year period to try and make a profit. And if you travel to conventions or distant markets, your travel expenses are deductible.
I had my brother do that, open "Bill's Video Emporium" where he sold DVDs on-line. His prices were too high, of course - he's reselling what he bought at retail - and never made any sales. But he got to write off the 1,400 DVDs he bought for "inventory." That's over $20,000 he got to write off over 3 years. Just figure it saved him about $2,000 a year in taxes. After three years, he folded his business, but the tax savings he gets to keep.
So if you weren't doing that, consider it.
Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: ↑Fri Dec 12, 2014 3:58 pm For me to ever buy a new one, it would either have to have a theme that appealed to me AND was a great pin (a Red Dwarf pin, a When Gravity Fails pin
I read the book "When Gravity Fails" by G.A. Effinger, about people who "jack in" to 7-player shared virtual reality pods; while the book was written years before it, the simulation is supposed to be perfect, i.e. as immersive as
The Matrix. People actually have
sex with others connected with them (but having no physical contact), the experience is supposedly indistinguishable from the real thing.
By sheer coincidence, a few years later, I was reading a copy of
The Washington Post and in the obituaries - which I don't normally read - I saw his. Strange.
Of course, this pin may have nothing to do with his book.
[quote="Ice Cream Jonsey" post_id=81411 time=1418425139 user_id=3]
The price is insane, though, I will give you that. I got a $6000 tax return a few years ago and used $5500 of it for the Tron pin. The thing is, though, Stern (the manufacturer) employs a lot of people. I like that they exist.[/quote]
Plus you got to again write off the $5,500 on your taxes, clever. Oh wait, you didn't because it's a "hobby" and hobby expenses are not deductible? You mean you didn't open "Ice Cream Jonsey's Pinball store" where you buy and sell pinball machines? Remember this: if you treat a hobby as a business, e.g. keep records on income (if any) vs. expenses, and kept records of your inventory, your hobby is now a business which the losses (and profits, if any) can be reported on schedule C, and you have three years to make a profit before the IRS can classify it as a hobby (rather than a business) and disallow the deduction. But, hey, if you don't make money in three years, you close down that business and start a new one! This is America, you can start a new business amytime. So switch from the pinball business to the electronic video game business, and start a new three-year period to try and make a profit. And if you travel to conventions or distant markets, your travel expenses are deductible.
I had my brother do that, open "Bill's Video Emporium" where he sold DVDs on-line. His prices were too high, of course - he's reselling what he bought at retail - and never made any sales. But he got to write off the 1,400 DVDs he bought for "inventory." That's over $20,000 he got to write off over 3 years. Just figure it saved him about $2,000 a year in taxes. After three years, he folded his business, but the tax savings he gets to keep.
So if you weren't doing that, consider it.
[quote="Ice Cream Jonsey" post_id=81411 time=1418425139 user_id=3] For me to ever buy a new one, it would either have to have a theme that appealed to me AND was a great pin (a Red Dwarf pin, a When Gravity Fails pin[/quote]
I read the book "When Gravity Fails" by G.A. Effinger, about people who "jack in" to 7-player shared virtual reality pods; while the book was written years before it, the simulation is supposed to be perfect, i.e. as immersive as [i]The Matrix[/i]. People actually have [i]sex[/i] with others connected with them (but having no physical contact), the experience is supposedly indistinguishable from the real thing.
By sheer coincidence, a few years later, I was reading a copy of [i]The Washington Post[/i] and in the obituaries - which I don't normally read - I saw his. Strange.
Of course, this pin may have nothing to do with his book.