[Linux-aus] grr

[Anthony Towns]

On 7 November 2013 23:49, David Lloyd <lloy0076 at adam.com.au> wrote:
> It would probably be easier to give poor “Gina” a ticket because surely if
> we could tap her on the shoulder for, say, 1/10th of her annual income it
> would be worth Linux Australia getting charity status so that she could
> deduct that from her huge tax bill.

Linux Australia doesn't qualify for charity status -- we don't serve
the fairly limited purposes that qualify for charities to merit
tax-deductible donation status in Australia. Even if it we were a
charity in that sense, LCA rego fees are a fee, not a donation, so
wouldn't qualify for tax-deductibility.

That's not relevant for anyone who can get their Linux-oriented
business to pay for LCA registration, in which case they fees would be
a business expense, and thus come out of pre-tax revenue, which is
effectively the same as a tax-deduction. If you're making over $30k pa
take home, that's effectively a discount of between $260 and $440 on
the cost of a professional ticket, depending on whether you get the
early-bird rate, are paying for it as a company or a private
individual, and what tax-bracket you're in.

That said, tax-deductible expenses aren't a "real" discount, it's just
that if they weren't tax-deductible, you'd have to pay the government
that much in addition; ie:
   - you earn $100,000 revenue for your personal consulting business
after other expenses
   - the business pays $970 for a non-early-bird professional ticket
   - you file a tax return, claiming $100,000 - $970 worth of taxable income
   - you pay $24,947 - $358.90 in income tax
   - total amount of money you're worse off due to lca: $611.10
   - total amount of money lca gets to spend due to you going to lca: $970

If you're an employee of an .au company that actually turns a profit,
you pay company tax not income tax, and it goes more like:
   - the company pays $970 for a non-early-bird professional ticket
   - they file a tax return claiming $x - $970 worth of taxable income
for the year
   - they pay 30% * $x - $291 in company tax
   - total amount of money their shareholders are worse off due to lca: $679
   - total amount of money lca gets to spend due to you going to lca: $970

If you're not earning that much, but still running a Linux business,
the numbers aren't as nice:
   - you earn $30,000 revenue for your personal consulting business
after other expenses
   - the business pays $870 for an early-bird professional ticket
   - you file a tax return, claiming $30,000 - $870 worth of taxable income
   - you pay $2,242 - $165.30 in income tax
   - total amount of money you're worse off due to lca: $704.70
   - total amount of money lca gets to spend due to you going to lca: $870

As a pensioner, or anyone else not doing Linux as a business:
   - you pay $399 for a hobbiest ticket
   - you aren't running a business and can't deduct lca from any tax
expenses you might have
   - total amount of money you're worse off due to lca: $399
   - total amount of money lca gets to spend due to you going to lca: $399

FWIW, I don't see any reason not to extend the student discount to be
a student/pensioner discount. There aren't that many pensioners that
are interested in attending lca that it would have a major effect on
the conference bottom-line or viability is there? If necessary, maybe
limit the number of student/pensioner seats in the same ways earlybird
tickets are limited?

Also, I think the difference between early-bird and regular
professional prices should be larger -- the 25% difference at the
hobbiest level this year is reasonable, but the 10.3% difference at
the professional level seems too small to me. I think ~22% would make
more sense, say $780 for early bird, $1000 normal, or similar. (That'd
make the post-tax costs for lca be $630 for the high-income
late-purchasing attendee, $632 for the low-income early-bird).

YMMV etc.

Cheers,
aj