First Pint at Leon's Goes For $2,650
Decatur Metro | February 7, 2009 | 12:24 pmUPDATE: From Ebay…Opening Day is now set for Monday, so the first pint is Monday at 5pm. We have looked for a way to work with a 501(c)3 to make this donation tax deductible, but have been advised that is not going to happen. We can issue a letter saying this is charitable giving, but that the recipient does not have non-profit status. You would have to work with your accountant/tax professional and decide how to proceed on your own.
In the last 10 minutes of bidding, the price for the honor of downing the first pint at Leon’s Full Service jumped $1,000 and ended at an impressive $2,650.
Two bidders, r***7 and p***a, drove the price skyward in the final minutes of the auction, with r***7 taking it in the end.
Who is r***7? Leon’s is scheduled to open to the public Monday, so we shall soon know. If/when I get details on the event, I will post here.
Congrats to r***7! And to Daren Wang and the BSP boys, who came up with an ingenious way of raising additional funds for Trackside/5th Earl employees.
Cheers all!
The winner is in Oakhurst, but I haven’t gotten a name yet. I’ll let you know when I know who it is.
This is awesome. What a great win win idea!
Time for first pint is set. See update to original post for details.
The Decatur Minute has a review (with pics) from the soft opening.
The first pint is now a mystery.
The paypal payment has come through, but there is no name on the payment, only an address. I emailed the winner, but didn’t hear back.
I hope the winner is going to show up with a valid license so that we can check his/her address. Otherwise, nobody gets to drink ever.
Actually, this will be tax deductible if the beneficiary can obtain its 501(c)(3) status within one year. Donations to charitable organizations (501s) can accept donations before they get their tax status situated with the federal and state authorities. The donations are not deductible until the proper filings have been made.
Administrator, I do a lot of pro-bono work for non-profits. Please contact me for more information.
It’s not a charitable contribution if you get something of value in return — in this case, a pint of beer.
And immortality…
Immortality for a mere $132 per ounce. Or, for our metric friends, only $4.67 per ml.
(Assuming that this a proper imperial pint – 20 oz. Seems the least they could do for $2,650!) Regardless, great job everyone – looking forward to visiting soon.
I don’t think the employee funds are going to file for non-profit status. The process is too long and costly to justify such an ad-hoc short-term program.
But technically, the auction was for the right to buy the first pint, not the actual pint itself. The winner will still have to pay! The idea is that you get to write what you want on the $5 or $10 bill and that will hang on the wall with your picture.
If that wasn’t clear to the winner, I’ll gladly give them the $10 bill to pay for the beer.
Furthermore, I think the winner could deduct the amount minus the fair market(menu price) of the beer if it were in fact a non-profit.
BTW, I think it should be a Terrapin or a Sweetwater. Hometown beers for a hometown event.
Daren is correct. At charity auctions (such as this one, minus the lack of non-profit status), you can deduct the price paid over fair market value. In this case, FMV for a pint of beer is about $3, or whatever the menu price is. The fact that you are going to have your picture taken and placed on the wall is irrelevant if you structure the auction properly.
You may be right about not bothering to make a non-profit out of the workers fund. It is a lengthy and expensive process. However, you can get the whole thing done for about $1,000 if you go through atlanta legal aid or otherwise find an attorney who otherwise will do it pro-bono. The only incentive to do it though would be if it would convince people to donate more. It is also unclear if the entity would even qualifty for non-profit status.
Not to rain on the parade – but as a tax lawyer I do not see how the workers’ aid fund would qualify as an exempt organization, since it is for the individual benefit of specific people. Nevertheless, the winning bidder is a wonderful person to make the contribution!
As noted with my last post, I agree with Melissa. It is unclear if such an organization would qualifty for non-profit status (meaning that I haven’t looked at the rules or their interpretation, so I don’t know). My original post was intended only to point out that people who donate to non-profits who don’t yet have an appropriate tax filing can retroactively deduct their donation once the organization gets its filings in order.
[…] the same owners who brought you the Brick Store, pours its first brew today at 5 p.m. Decatur Metro has the details, including a blow-by-blow account of the eBay auction for that first beer that’s […]
This is great, and hats off to the Brick Store guys.
In a related vein: Does anyone know of their plans to establish a place in Grant Park? They had a place chosen, but their plans are either stalled or in the can completely.