I am posting this on personal finance since I figured the community here would be more up to date/knowledgeable with taxes and other rules / regulations surrounding finance - or suggest some alternatives.
To keep it somewhat anonymous but give an example: Let's say I am a licensed veterinarian. I would like to provide professional health services to animals in the shelter and so the shelter can instead spend their money toward feeding and housing the animals. The services I can provide greatly outweigh the amount of money I can donate and in my opinion make a larger immediate impact.
This might sound like a scam but the reason this question pops into mind is because I would like to contribute my professional skills to those without normal access to it for the majority of the work week. However I cannot sustain myself if I spend most of my time volunteering and not earning. And even a small tax break could be beneficial for me.
I was wondering if I could charge for work being done, as if the client was going to pay but instead have that be a donation. And properly document that the work was done and have the client sign it.
For example: Say the average dollar amount to spay/neuter a shelter animal is $150. The procedure was performed and I invoice the shelter for $150, however I would like to donate that service and not charge them for it. So they would sign the invoice that "yes this work was done on so-and-so on this date by this doctor."
The above scenario is so similar to an alternative view that might sound sketchy but seems totally legal. This would require me to go to the shelter, donate $150 (or the exact amount I charge for the service) and write that off as a donation. Then the shelter hires me for $150 to do the operation. Effectively the shelter never gained nor lost anything.
Again, looking for sincere ways I can spend most of my time volunteering my professional skills as a trade off for spending less time earning a paycheck doing the same services.
Any advice would be great!
Submitted April 02, 2019 at 09:36AM by w0wieee https://ift.tt/2OHS710
