Luxury Link - A Generous Contribution

[omegaet]

Looks like our friends at Luxury Link have made a generous donation to the New York City Wine & Food Festival.namely a five night package at Furore Inn Resort on the Amalfi Coast:

http://www.cmarket.com/auction/item/...ctmid=94206446

Nice to see LL is giving back to benefit a worthy cause.

[thepiranha]

Thanks for pointing out the Luxury Link donation. All the proceeds from the New York City Wine & Food Festival support Share our Strength, an organization that provides food for people who are less fortunate than ourselves. Share our Strength also sponsors the Taste of the Nation, an annual event held in the spring in cities all across the country. I've attended close to twenty Taste of the Nation dinners and the food and drink are outstanding. As with the Wine & Food Festival, the proceeds go to charity. I heartily recommend these dinners to all.

[travel2fun]

Yes, it is a nice gesture on the part of LL. One question though, why is the starting price at $1,800?

[thepiranha]

Good question, T2F. I guess it breaks down to around $250 per night for a total of $1250. That leaves another $550 for the gourmet dinner, breakfasts every morning and massages. I'm not sure if that's much different from what you would pay ala carte. In any event, they should probably start at a lower price.

[LL_Travelfan]

Hi thepiranah,



Your calculation sounds about right, albite a bit high as you point out. However, since this is a charity donation, they can put on any price they want to. If my recollection serves me right, the previous auction prices for this property were quite a bit lower.



Kind Regards,

[omegaet]

t-2-f.....you could possibly acquire the same package at LL for a minimum bid at less than the starting price indicated by this charity. Remember,the charity is looking to make as much money as possible. If you can locate the fine print in most charity auctions, you can determine if the charitable organization has been granted tax exemption under section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. If the status has been granted, the amount which exceeds the fair market price for the item on which you bid, may be subject to favorable tax treatments under IRS codes.

You can only deduct what you can prove you donated. In other words, get and keep a receipt form the charity (showing the organizations name, contribution date, and amount donated), keep canceled checks and credit card statements, etc. If your donation is worth more than $250, you must have documentation from the charity; a canceled check is not enough for the IRS.

This is one of the reasons (not the only reason) many individuals are willing to pay more for a charity auction item than just fair market value.

Consult your tax professional on the matter.

[Mountie]

Obviously someone sees this trip to Italy as a good deal or they are interested in supporting the charity. The opening minimum bid of $1,800 has been offered.

[jsattapr2]

Come on mountie, this is for charity. I'm sure the final bid price will be a lot more money.

[thepiranha]

We need to realize that most of the people bidding on the package have probably never heard of Luxury Link so they don't know that it can be purchased for a lower price. Also, as jsattapr2 said, some people don't mind paying more than retail for an item in order to support the charity. As omegaet said, the purchase amount above the fair market value of the package is a tax deduction, so paying $500 more than the fair market value, for example, isn't really paying $500 extra, depending on your tax bracket. Assuming that most people who bid on luxury items are in the highest tax bracket, the $500 donation costs only around $300 to $350, depending on state income tax rates.

[Mountie]

Actually, I looked over the charity auction page and noticed the Luxury Link logo at the bottom of the page is a direct link back to the Luxury Link Home Page. So I guess, many visitors to the page have an oportunity to be linked back to Luxury Link's Home Page to do some exploring. Don't know for certain, but gotta believe they are getting some additional traffic as a result of the link.