Anyone near Jacksonville/Amelia Island?

[Barry Wolk]

Shipped out the tiny Continental this morning, headed for the Amelia Island Concours. If anyone's going on Sunday the 13th, please introduce yourself.

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[Chuck Lutz]

Barry, how about building a hauler like that? Now you're talking !!!!
"When it absolutely positively has to be there on time..."

Have a great time and take lots of pictures. I hope to get there someday. It's probably less of a zoo than Monterey was last year. Will you be there for the whole week?

[Barry Wolk]

Arriving Friday afternoon and leaving Monday. We booked an abbreviated trip as we had a very sick cat that I was giving infusions to every other day. She was my love sponge and I miss her.:(

I'll definitely take pictures. All three Ford brother's Mark IIs will be there. They were trying to get the Derham convertible, but I don't know if they did or not.

[Shelly Harris]

Your street conditions look just like what we have in Chicago which is why I've been comfortable driving the car around this weekend. Bought a Vacumn testing kit at Harbor Freight in the hopes I can get to that project but I've got income tax preps hanging over my head so that's going to kill the rest of the week end.

When you get invited to an event like that do they pick up the tab for the car's transport? Inside that trailer it gets pretty windy.. why isn't the top up or car covered? I hope you have good weather down there, but even Southern Fla has been very cold this winter. You'll still have fun I'm sure.

[Barry Wolk]

Trailer is completely enclosed, they just has the access doors open. They put a fresh plastic tarp over each car. They put it in with the top down because they needed clearance for a '29 Packard going in under it.

These shows are 501 (c) (3) charities. There are only 2 or 3 vehicles in the whole country that Concours pay to have at their show. One is the GM Futurliner. It takes a whole crew and some pretty big equipment to move that puppy around.

However, we do get to take the total transportation cost for the car and airfare for one person, the hotel bill, half of our meals and the total cost of the rental car. They are tax deductible as a legitimate fund-raising expense. Also, the black-tie event tickets are deductible less the value received, typically $50 for a banquet meal. The same holds true for the auto show black-ties.

If I spend $5,000 I get to deduct that from my taxable income. The benefit is the percentage of that amount that is my tax rate.

Without the cars, there is no show, without the owners, there are no cars. It's an opportunity to do well while doing good for the charities as the money is made on the gate, charity black-tie event, silent auction and concessions.

[Doc]

Just to follow up on Barry's point above; I mentioned the idea of taking tax deductions for future concours-related expenses to my tax preparer/CPA when we went over this year's tax returns recently. Unaware of this possibly, I hadn't really kept adequate records of events we did in 2009 to consider for this tax season, but on Barry's suggestion wanted to see if he'd advise doing it for 2010. He confirmed that this is a potentially legitimate deduction--provided that the host organization is a registered 501(c)(3) entity and the associated expenses are consistent with IRS guidelines. Obviously I'm not trying to give tax advice on this Forum, but I'd encourage anyone who anticipates showing their car at charitable events this year to check with their tax preparer regarding this possibility. It's important to note that not all shows and the related expenses would qualify; many show organizers are not registered charitable organizations.

[Barry Wolk]

I agree, but the recipients of the funds from the show need to be a legit charity, not necessarily the show itself.