The Unraveling ......
Twelve days to go , and this mess will be behind many. Well, not quite. I guess technically, 18 days it'll be 100% behind us. Got yet another email that snuck into my email inbox( new email address added to my growing spam list) . Apparently, ..."There's seriously something
wrong with" me . Who knew?" "Have you even looked back at
our blog and noticed that more than 75% of your blogs all have to do with me,
my dealership, the riders group, You're obsessed dude."
No, not really. I'm headed up to attend a ride with the North Winds Iron Indian Riders in MN. Quite a few other folks have mentioned to me they'd like to join us , so I'm ensuring they know what is going on. This is one of the mediums I utilize. It's not a highly advertised event outside of social media., so .. WTF. I'll mention it myself. I did do a quick count of my blog posts though. I mean 75%? After the last 4 months of getting my name slandered on social media, I've brought up an area, and/or event and locations less than a dozen times. There are 163 posts within this Blog, so that would equal about what ... 7%; that's about 10% of 75%. Numbers ain't jiving. Math is one of my strong points. Fact. Hell, simple math is one of the reasons, the main reason, my attitude has changed since August of last year.
In retrospect, besides what I've been witness to since late 2011, I held on until late 2016. I think it began for me when I was contacted by Tim Neid the treasurer, about my IARG dues. But, I'd paid those months earlier when I signed up for the dealer week event. This has become an annual event. I sign up and the subject of IARG dues comes up and they are collected. I was asked specifically about it and I said 'sure' since you get discounts and everything. I mean, that's why most join and/or renew. I've looked back through my receipts but none of them break out any details. Tim told me not to worry about it; I was good. Months later the subject came up again; hell, I probably brought it up. I wanted to be in actual good standing. Tim told me to pay the VP when he came down to visit me in early March of '17 and he'd ferry the funds home and give them to him and they'd get deposited correctly. But by then, the IARG was imploding and the majority of the leadership was rifted or walked. Now, I was questioning.... everything.
One thing that has come up multiple times by others was the Charities '990.'. Multiple folks via multiple communication channels discussed it with me. Hell, initially I had no idea what a 990 was; had to look it up. I then mentioned it once or twice and was told it wasn't required in MN. Hey , what do I know. But last year, this was brought up multiple times. So, I did some reading. A lil' research. And realized something was wrong. It bothered me a little there was no oversight, but now I personally felt like something was flat out wrong. Along the way I'd wondered what the overhead of the Charity up there was. Simple question. But I didn't get a simple answer. I had a few others prod me. I asked it on a social media FB group page; didn't go over very well. This accelerated the beginning of the end of my relationship with the entity up there.
Before mid March 2017, the fallout had begun. From several states away, I'm witnessing chaos. I decided right there and then what 'side' I was on. I'd been questioning a lot of things for years, but now it was in motion. A lot of things going down.... well, almost all of them .. didn't actually concern me. Not directly. But I couldn't get an answer to my question on the 990. Eventually I was told...
Here it is .. the 2nd of August 2017. I've seen some draft pages of a 2016 filing, and think I saw somewhere that the '14s were finally done, but not the '15s (Which doesn't make sense to me. Don't you have to do them, before the '16s?). But, to be honest I don't care about the taxes. They should .... they were years late doing them. I thought after three years you could lose your tax free status. But they are obviously doing them, so for all intensive purposes, that subject is no longer an issue (at least not from a legal standpoint). I don't really care about the 990. If everything had been done correct before this all came to a head in March, none of this would .. well.. even be a discussion point. Period. All I ever asked is "what's the overhead?" If I give $1.00 to a charity, how much of that dollar goes to the recipients of the charity? If not all of it (which no one would expect of course) where does the rest go? I was a contributor; I have the right to know. Since no one would tell me, I am no longer a contributor moving forward. Simple as that.
Funny part is I've been told it's "all tax deductible and 'virtually free' ". At the end of the year they'll send you a write off form. But anyone with a grasp of tax write offs, knows it doesn't work this way. First, not everyone does a long form to get additional deductions. Secondly, a $100.00 gift to charity doesn't mean you pay $100.00 less in taxes to Uncle Sam. Third, you can't write off the entire $100.00 if got something of value for that $100.00 ( if the value was $100.00, your write off is zero!). But hey, I'm not an accountant. I'm not giving tax advice. I leave that to others.
I just wanted to know what the Overhead was.... and is. Maybe the confusion was I didn't ask "what's the Program %?" as if that'd changed the answer I got. Either way.... Fair Question?
p.s. I normally post on these sort of subjects that last several months after receiving taunts or emails or social media slams. Tit for Tat? Is what it is.... so....... TAT
No, not really. I'm headed up to attend a ride with the North Winds Iron Indian Riders in MN. Quite a few other folks have mentioned to me they'd like to join us , so I'm ensuring they know what is going on. This is one of the mediums I utilize. It's not a highly advertised event outside of social media., so .. WTF. I'll mention it myself. I did do a quick count of my blog posts though. I mean 75%? After the last 4 months of getting my name slandered on social media, I've brought up an area, and/or event and locations less than a dozen times. There are 163 posts within this Blog, so that would equal about what ... 7%; that's about 10% of 75%. Numbers ain't jiving. Math is one of my strong points. Fact. Hell, simple math is one of the reasons, the main reason, my attitude has changed since August of last year.
In retrospect, besides what I've been witness to since late 2011, I held on until late 2016. I think it began for me when I was contacted by Tim Neid the treasurer, about my IARG dues. But, I'd paid those months earlier when I signed up for the dealer week event. This has become an annual event. I sign up and the subject of IARG dues comes up and they are collected. I was asked specifically about it and I said 'sure' since you get discounts and everything. I mean, that's why most join and/or renew. I've looked back through my receipts but none of them break out any details. Tim told me not to worry about it; I was good. Months later the subject came up again; hell, I probably brought it up. I wanted to be in actual good standing. Tim told me to pay the VP when he came down to visit me in early March of '17 and he'd ferry the funds home and give them to him and they'd get deposited correctly. But by then, the IARG was imploding and the majority of the leadership was rifted or walked. Now, I was questioning.... everything.
One thing that has come up multiple times by others was the Charities '990.'. Multiple folks via multiple communication channels discussed it with me. Hell, initially I had no idea what a 990 was; had to look it up. I then mentioned it once or twice and was told it wasn't required in MN. Hey , what do I know. But last year, this was brought up multiple times. So, I did some reading. A lil' research. And realized something was wrong. It bothered me a little there was no oversight, but now I personally felt like something was flat out wrong. Along the way I'd wondered what the overhead of the Charity up there was. Simple question. But I didn't get a simple answer. I had a few others prod me. I asked it on a social media FB group page; didn't go over very well. This accelerated the beginning of the end of my relationship with the entity up there.Before mid March 2017, the fallout had begun. From several states away, I'm witnessing chaos. I decided right there and then what 'side' I was on. I'd been questioning a lot of things for years, but now it was in motion. A lot of things going down.... well, almost all of them .. didn't actually concern me. Not directly. But I couldn't get an answer to my question on the 990. Eventually I was told...
11 APR - "My
Taxes for the 501c3? being worked on. And thats all you gotta know,
and when they're done.. they'll get posted."
17 May - "the
taxes will be completed end of June
24 May - "The taxes will be completed end of June"
6 July- Taxes for 2016 are about to get filed. Here it is .. the 2nd of August 2017. I've seen some draft pages of a 2016 filing, and think I saw somewhere that the '14s were finally done, but not the '15s (Which doesn't make sense to me. Don't you have to do them, before the '16s?). But, to be honest I don't care about the taxes. They should .... they were years late doing them. I thought after three years you could lose your tax free status. But they are obviously doing them, so for all intensive purposes, that subject is no longer an issue (at least not from a legal standpoint). I don't really care about the 990. If everything had been done correct before this all came to a head in March, none of this would .. well.. even be a discussion point. Period. All I ever asked is "what's the overhead?" If I give $1.00 to a charity, how much of that dollar goes to the recipients of the charity? If not all of it (which no one would expect of course) where does the rest go? I was a contributor; I have the right to know. Since no one would tell me, I am no longer a contributor moving forward. Simple as that.
Funny part is I've been told it's "all tax deductible and 'virtually free' ". At the end of the year they'll send you a write off form. But anyone with a grasp of tax write offs, knows it doesn't work this way. First, not everyone does a long form to get additional deductions. Secondly, a $100.00 gift to charity doesn't mean you pay $100.00 less in taxes to Uncle Sam. Third, you can't write off the entire $100.00 if got something of value for that $100.00 ( if the value was $100.00, your write off is zero!). But hey, I'm not an accountant. I'm not giving tax advice. I leave that to others.
I just wanted to know what the Overhead was.... and is. Maybe the confusion was I didn't ask "what's the Program %?" as if that'd changed the answer I got. Either way.... Fair Question?
__________
Program % reflects the percent of total expenses a
charity spent on its programs in the year analyzed. For example, a
Program % of 80% means that the charity spent 80% of its expenses on charitable programs. The remaining 20% was spent on overhead, which includes fundraising, and management & general.
__________
p.s. I normally post on these sort of subjects that last several months after receiving taunts or emails or social media slams. Tit for Tat? Is what it is.... so....... TAT
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