Friday, March 29, 2013

oh yes and

Lincoln Center Festival (July 5 - 28) has announced its agenda, which among other things about doubles the number of iterations of contemporary (no, really) opera in the NY opera season thus far.  Tickets on sale to non-member troglos starting April 8.  Be aware that last time I went to an LCF event they were harvesting mandatory charitable contributions over and above the ticket price. Annoying and probably illegal given the tax implications, but hey, it's art, so stand and deliver.

5 comments:

  1. Mandatory? That's a new one.

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    1. I was surprised. They fixed it at a percentage of the ticket cost, and I got a nice little letter thanking me for forking over, which they are legally obliged to send out to contributors for tax purposes. I wonder if they didn't quite realize that not all of their audience make enough money to write off charitable contributions. Must be nice. Let them eat Stockhausen.

      Hopefully they decided this was a bad idea, and no other org will ever, ever follow suit.

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  2. But if it's mandatory, how is it not just part of the ticket price, like all those surcharges on Met tickets? This seems strange to me. Tax law: I do not understand it.

    Also, as you say, it's really obnoxious.

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    1. Precisely because you can deduct it, whereas you generally can't deduct Met surcharges unless you can convince the IRS that they're an unreimbursed medical expense (which may be arguable, who knows?).

      I suppose, in a way, it's a form of back-door government funding without actually implicating the government. Sort of like how BP pays for Gulf spill cleanup with US taxpayer dollars by declaring the expense as a loss.

      You do not understand tax law because a) you are a sentient being who has the use of speech and you do not skin your knuckles when you walk, and b) you are not a lawyer.

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