Retired FBI agent's hobby (personal story)
Last edited Sat Feb 25, 2023, 06:52 PM - Edit history (2)
I was at my CPA's office getting my taxes done a few days ago. When we got to the "donations" section of the tax return, my CPA had a wry smile on his face. I asked what's so funny. He responded that he has a client who has quite the sizable write-off: around $55,000.
I asked what on earth he was doing to get such a deduction. CPA responded that his client personally feeds 70 feral cats a day and that the tab (no pun intended) each day is $150.
He said this individual was a retired FBI agent.
I don't know for sure that the agent gets the entire deduction of $55,000--we didn't talk about that. In other words, this is not tax advice. I just thought it was funny, sweet, and admirable, so I thought I'd post it here.
Now, as it turns out, I don't think the FBI agent is the only sucker for a feral cat. While I was waiting for my appointment time, I glanced through a stack of calendars on the CPA's waiting room end table. The 2023 calendars were sent to him for donations, I assume, and were accompanied by a sign that said "help yourself." As I looked through them, I figured this was a profile of his donations, as the calendars probably came to him as a thank you. About a third were religious (Greek Orthodox, which is slightly relevant to this discussion), a third environmental, and a third, organizations for feral cats. There were probably 50 calendars.
I asked what town the agent lived in. I asked because in NJ, the property taxes are high, but most towns provide quality pet control services for that money. They also work with "catch and release" nonprofits. The town he told me is very affluent, and I'm surprised the town doesn't do a better job.
One last observation: I "inherited" this CPA from another CPA who had to retire due to illness. The previous CPA had pictures of himself and his wife and in every picture there were cats. I recall many humorous cat conversations with that CPA.
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I'm pretty sure 10 is about the most I've ever gotten in one year, but it sure seemed like a lot at the time. 
In my case, they're mostly related to environmental/wildlife organizations with a dash of ASPCA ad Humane Society thrown in. It's not just charities I've donated to, either. They seem to all swap mailing lists with each other. For example, if you donate to the National Wildlife Federation one year, don't be surprised if you start to receive mailings from the Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund next year, then the Audubon Society, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, the list goes on and on!
They seem to keep proliferating for a while even if you stop giving, too. Based on my experience, I'd wouldn't be surprised if that CPA only donated to a fraction of the groups he got calendars from. But even at that, it sends like he has donated a lot of money to groups that make the world a better place, so good for him!