Anyone else hear the audio of Oprah giving the audience members new cars? Holy crap, you'd think a horde of demons flew up from the bowels of the earth, slaying everyone in sight! Good lord....

[Ishamael]

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>Anyone else hear the audio of Oprah giving the audience members new cars? Holy crap, you'd think a horde of demons flew up from the bowels of the earth, slaying everyone in sight! Good lord....</div>

[Flip]

<div style='font: 10pt Tahoma; text-align: left; '>What kind did they get?</div>

[Lox]

<div style='font: bold 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Pontiac G6. Pontiac donated them all and is paying all taxes and is paying to customize each one.</div>

[Tessian]

<div style='font: 11pt Dominion; text-align: left; '>what? Everyone thinks that bitch bought them herself!</div>

[Lox]

<div style='font: bold 9pt ; text-align: left; '>I don't know how integral she was in setting up the deal, but she didn't have to pay for anything.</div>

[Gentz]

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>Wait, so they were donated? What the hell for?</div>

[Kupek]

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>"Donated" is the wrong term. They were written off as an advertising expense. And it worked; we're talking about them, aren't we?</div>

[Gentz]

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>Yeah. I was gonna say that seems like a pretty big advertising expense, but I guess it's really no different that Pepsi giving a million dollar sweepstakes.</div>

[Lox]

<div style='font: bold 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Yeah, pretty much. I read somewhere that it cost about 9 million dollars which is probably pretty cheap for the publicity.</div>

[Lox]

<div style='font: bold 9pt ; text-align: left; '>That's the term they used in the news article I read. I just copied. :) I wasn't aware they could write something like this off as advertising instead of as a donation.</div>

[Agent 57]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>"Come on, Jerry, this sort of thing is just a writeoff for them!" "What do you mean, a writeoff?" "Well, you know, they just...write it off!" "You don't even know what a writeoff is, do you!"</div>

[Kupek]

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>I didn't mean "written off" in any legal, tax-saving manner, just that it's a form of advertising, and was paid for as such.</div>

[SineSwiper]

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '><b>Link:</b> <a href="http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2004/mft04 ... m">Oprah's Product Placement</a>

The Daily Show footage of that was genius. Also, a good article on Oprah's sly marketing technique...</div>

[SineSwiper]

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>One, Ponatic got the biggest spot of advertizing they could dream of: Oprah, including a rattling off of features by Oprah herself. Two, Oprah got the biggest opening session episode since 1996, and credit for "donating" the cars, when in fact, she didn't spend a penny.</div>

[SineSwiper]

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>What's sad is that it's probably a tax write-off.</div>

[Ishamael]

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>Kramer - "Do you?". Jerry -"No, I don't". Kramer -"But they do, and they're the ones writing it off!"</div>

[Gentz]

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>I think write-offs only apply to charitable donations</div>

[Flip]

<div style='font: 10pt Tahoma; text-align: left; '>Theoretically, all corporate expenditures have a business objective. Deductions from corporate gross income for ordinary and necessary business expenditures are allowed in arriving at taxable income. In fact, charitable contributions are capped, so if they get the OK to call this advertising expense (i'm sure their tax preparer submitted an IRS Private Letter Ruling and asked on something borderling like this) it works to their advantage.

I dont know why Sine has a problem with it, a corp cant even give people who need cars free cars and look good in his eyes? Shouldnt something like giving away cars have some tax advatage? Sheesh.</div>

[Kupek]

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Frankly, no. The whole point of tax deductions for charitable donations is that, theoretically, your taxable income has decreased because you've chosen to give some of it away. What they did was for advertising purposes, to increase profits. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's not charity.</div>

[Gentz]

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>Considering Flip is an accountant, I'm assuming he's probably right actually.</div>

[Eric]

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>Bling Bling!</div>

[Kupek]

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>The concept of deserving a deduction is different from whether or not you qualify for one. I'll take his word on whether or not they qualify, but he asked a question of whether or not they SHOULD get it.</div>

[SineSwiper]

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>The problem is that it's not charity for charity's sake. There's always some damned ulterior motive behind it.</div>

[Flip]

<div style='font: 10pt Tahoma; text-align: left; '>Which is one reason why some large corps dont pay tax, even though their revenue is 100 million, if they had 101 million in expenses they would have a net income of -1 mill. If a corp like this had to pay tax on the revenue there is no way they could afford it.</div>

[Zeus]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Of course, that's the very nature of business. But at least this time, there were tangible benefits to needy people. This is how all charities work when it comes to corporate donations or how a lot of amateur athletes get funding. It might have ulterior motives, but at least the benefits are good</div>

[Zeus]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>If we accountants were given that kind of power, we'd be the most powerful people in business. We simply ensure they follow the rules. Personally, I think this one should be written off, it's as good advertising as anything else and there was actual tangible benefits to the public (well, part of it)</div>

[Ishamael]

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>Interesting philosophical point. Should we use intent as a determining point for whether something gets counted as "charity"? I'd so no. Probably best to keep laws as they are (setting things up so that our greed helps humanity)....</div>

[SineSwiper]

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>When the net effect ends up being worth more than the "charity", I don't consider that charity. Charity is losing something to benefit somebody else, not a business transaction in disguise.</div>