[Rich42]

There is no way that I pretend to understand all the IRS tax laws. However, could someone please explain to me how a private company called Significant Productions, as was discussed in the Sun News paper today can be considered a nonprofit and, therefore tax free company. I believe it is owned or managed, or somehow very involved with Whitney Morse and its sole purpose is to provide entertainment to villagers through extravagant ticket prices at the Sharon and the Studio theaters. How in the world can this be considered a nonprofit operation?

[Bogie Shooter]

What is the Sun News paper?

[Papa_lecki]

Originally Posted by Rich42

There is no way that I pretend to understand all the IRS tax laws. However, could someone please explain to me how a private company called Significant Productions, as was discussed in the Sun News paper today can be considered a nonprofit and, therefore tax free company. I believe it is owned or managed, or somehow very involved with Whitney Morse and its sole purpose is to provide entertainment to villagers through extravagant ticket prices at the Sharon and the Studio theaters. How in the world can this be considered a nonprofit operation?

It’s not a private company - it’s a 501c3. NO ONE takes the profits from the organization.

Whitney Morse is NOT on the board of directors, he may have provided a donation to get it started.

I am sure the actors appreciate a performing arts non profit to perform. Especially in an era where many small theaters are closing.

It is like an orchestra or a ballet troop in a city being incorporated as a non profit, you just don’t like that the Morse name is associated with it.

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by Papa_lecki

It’s not a private company - it’s a 501c3. NO ONE takes the profits from the organization.

Whitney Morse is NOT on the board of directors, he may have provided a donation to get it started.

I am sure the actors appreciate a performing arts non profit to perform. Especially in an era where many small theaters are closing.

It is like an orchestra or a ballet troop in a city being incorporated as a non profit, you just don’t like that the Morse name is associated with it.

Slight correction, she rather than he.

[charlieo1126@gmail.com]

Originally Posted by Papa_lecki

It’s not a private company - it’s a 501c3. NO ONE takes the profits from the organization.

Whitney Morse is NOT on the board of directors, he may have provided a donation to get it started.

I am sure the actors appreciate a performing arts non profit to perform. Especially in an era where many small theaters are closing.

It is like an orchestra or a ballet troop in a city being incorporated as a non profit, you just don’t like that the Morse name is associated with it.

thanks papa that should stop about 10 pages of Morse family bashing

[Keefelane66]

Originally Posted by Rich42

There is no way that I pretend to understand all the IRS tax laws. However, could someone please explain to me how a private company called Significant Productions, as was discussed in the Sun News paper today can be considered a nonprofit and, therefore tax free company. I believe it is owned or managed, or somehow very involved with Whitney Morse and its sole purpose is to provide entertainment to villagers through extravagant ticket prices at the Sharon and the Studio theaters. How in the world can this be considered a nonprofit operation?

It's a way of maximizing profits through tax loopholes.

[Papa_lecki]

Originally Posted by Keefelane66

It's a way of maximizing profits through tax loopholes.

A 501c3 is NOT a tax loophole, it is the tax code. That section of the code was specifically put into the code; they had to apply for 501c3 status with the IRS.

How are they maximizing profits? the board of directors do not get paid, they are volunteers.
Are the performers paid too much? Is the music director paid too much?

Do you support the following paying taxes (and not having as much money to put into performance? The Rockettes; the New York Philharmonic; the Philadelphia Ballet; the Los Angels Orchestra?

i am sorry, but having a nice performing arts troupe makes the Villages a nice place to retire; not everyone plays golf and pickleball all day.

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by Papa_lecki

A 501c3 is NOT a tax loophole, it is the tax code. That section of the code was specifically put into the code; they had to apply for 501c3 status with the IRS.

How are they maximizing profits? the board of directors do not get paid, they are volunteers.
Are the performers paid too much? Is the music director paid too much?

Do you support the following paying taxes (and not having as much money to put into performance? The Rockettes; the New York Philharmonic; the Philadelphia Ballet; the Los Angels Orchestra?

i am sorry, but having a nice performing arts troupe makes the Villages a nice place to retire; not everyone plays golf and pickleball all day.

[Papa_lecki]

I just did some research - Significant Production just got their 501c3 designation in August 2023.

[PersonOfInterest]

Originally Posted by Rich42

There is no way that I pretend to understand all the IRS tax laws. However, could someone please explain to me how a private company called Significant Productions, as was discussed in the Sun News paper today can be considered a nonprofit and, therefore tax free company. I believe it is owned or managed, or somehow very involved with Whitney Morse and its sole purpose is to provide entertainment to villagers through extravagant ticket prices at the Sharon and the Studio theaters. How in the world can this be considered a nonprofit operation?

Here is the IRS definition of a nonprofit -

Organizations organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, educational, or other specified purposes and that meet certain other requirements are tax exempt under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3)

Your statement that " its sole purpose is to provide entertainment to villagers through extravagant ticket prices at the Sharon and the Studio theaters" needs to be qualified by looking at the organization's purpose statement in their incorporation records which should fit into the definition above.

In other terms, the money they make above their expenses has to be used for a purpose as indicated above. For example all of the 'profit' earned by the organization might go to further the education of performing arts. Were they a 'for profit' organization those profits would be given to the individual shareholders, owners or investors for their personal use.

[PersonOfInterest]

Originally Posted by Keefelane66

It's a way of maximizing profits through tax loopholes.

There's nothing wrong with maximizing profits. That's likely the goal of almost any business, non-profit or for-profit. Its a matter of where that profit goes. In the case of a for-profit organization the profits are distributed to the Owners (shareholders, members etc.) for their personal use. It becomes taxable Income to those Owners. For a non-profit the profits are channeled into the 'charitable' purpose of the organization.

By definition a 'charitable' purpose may also be religious, scientific, public safety, literary or educational.

There really are no 'Tax Loopholes'. There is tax code (Federal Tax Law) that makes certain allowances to reduce taxation. Itemized Deductions would be an example of this.

[Two Bills]

Any business that does not use all tax avoidance methods to increase its income, needs to sack the accountant.
Tax evasion is a different beast.

[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by Papa_lecki

I just did some research - Significant Production just got their 501c3 designation in August 2023.

Do some more digging and find the names and principles of the other 501c(3) entities that are and have been involved throughout the community. Some are broad reaching in their goals and efforts and some exist with a much narrower focus, as appears to be the case here with "Significant Productions". Many of these also have a tie to individuals of substantial wealth.

My experience over the many years has been that the people of significant means are less infatuated with money and more generous than the average person and especially those who bemoan the success of your efforts and energy. The uninformed and the ignorant see the wealthy as Scrooge McDuck doing swan dives into piles of gold coins and dollar bills in his massive vault, nothing could be farther from the truth. A typical multimillionaire (or billionaire) is much less liquid than most would think, they have their wealth invested and tied up in ventures and enterprises that grow their investments by creating jobs and products needed or wanted by others. They are not the ruthless money grubbers that the media portray them to be, but they are very protective of their work and efforts, just like everyone else.

Over the last 10 years I have sent a significant amount of time studying and trying to understand The Villages, their business model, and how they do what they do so successfully. The amount of resources, focus, and energy that is invested into the planning and growth of this community, to say nothing of the huge personal risk that continues to be taken, is far beyond the possible comprehension of those that only want look at it on the surface. One could write several doctoral thesis on everything from construction management techniques, land development, and business management to local government relations by studying how the generations of the developer's family have done business. They have had great success and a few failures over the years.

I've only ever met one member of "the family", Jennifer, one time during the opening of the Ezell RC, the rest remain as much an enigma to me as they do to the rest of the resident of The Villages. I have felt their wrath on more than one occasion with my work (as G.W.P.) and my positions on matters of public interest. The only benefit I've received is from understanding their business enough to build a moderately successful business of my own that capitalize on what and how they build here, contrary to what some individuals and organizations would have you believe.

Some of the best advice I was ever given was that if I wanted to be rich and successful to do with rich people do and not what poor people do. That mentor and I had many discussions on the topic over the years, some of the things I realized and learned is that being successfully is hard work, that you can't do it alone, that giving back never diminish what you accomplish, and the seven deadly sins and seven heavenly virtues apply to business as well as ones personal life.

[b0bd0herty]

Originally Posted by Bogie Shooter

What is the Sun News paper?

Yesterday's news & advertising for homes in The Villages.

[huge-pigeons]

“Any business that does not use all tax avoidance methods”, you can say the same thing for “any person” too. My goal is to pay the least amount of taxes legally.