Taxes for selling LSU etc tickets on stubhub, need CPA advice please

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I think I read recently that tradition fund donations are no longer deductible.

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TCJA, tax cuts and jobs act eliminated sports tickets as a deduction.

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True but is not relevant to my question,

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can I deduct tradition fund I have to pay just to get my tickets pro-rata?

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TCJA, tax cuts and jobs act eliminated sports tickets as a deduction.

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I would argue yes, but only the $15 you had to pay for these tickets, not your regular season tickets. I put the $15 into Stub Hub when I said how much I paid for the tickets.

After the Trump tax cuts you cannot claim any of the donation you make to any PSL organization for the right to buy tickets. Your cost basis is the amount you paid for the ticket itself, in this case, face value.

I would agree with this. Instinct would tell me face value is your basis in it. But you might be able to argue something like since the IRS considers that entire donation non-deductible, then the IRS is saying that’s what I’m paying for the tickets therefore the entire donation should be my basis. Not sure if anybody has tried that yet or not and would have to do more research.

With all the being said, I don’t think any of this is really worth your time. How much money could you be making off this?

(no message)

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How much money could you be making off this?

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We have Stadium Club seats. We don't sell them for "face" which is the same as every other ticket in the stadium, but we rarely realize any gain when you take the fees into account. We're going to get a 1099 from StubHub that makes it look like we have a fairly significant gain if the cost basis is "face value."

Your cost basis is what you paid for the ticket.

Tax law is clear that a tradition fund contribution to give you the right to buy tickets, and the actual ticket purchase themselves, are two different things. This is how we were able to get the old 80% charitable deduction on the tradition fees.

When the 2018 tax act dumped that deduction, it didn't make any other changes.

So, just because the trad fund is no longer deductible, doesn't mean we get to just add that to basis.

1) What did you actually pay for the ticket? That is your cost basis. If it was part of a seacon ticket package, you need to pro-rata allocate the cost unless you can prove that a different method provides more economic susbtance.

2) It's going to be whatever the actual cost LSU charged you for the actual tickets when you put in your order.

This is one of those situations where "what seems fair" and "what the tax law says" are two different things. We find that a lot with the 2018 tax cut act. It was a poorly, poorly written legislation with tons of unintneded consequences.

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Tax law is clear that a tradition fund contribution to give you the right to buy tickets, and the actual ticket purchase themselves, are two different things. This is how we were able to get the old 80% charitable deduction on the tradition fees.

When the 2018 tax act dumped that deduction, it didn't make any other changes.

So, just because the trad fund is no longer deductible, doesn't mean we get to just add that to basis.

1) What did you actually pay for the ticket? That is your cost basis. If it was part of a seacon ticket package, you need to pro-rata allocate the cost unless you can prove that a different method provides more economic susbtance.

2) It's going to be whatever the actual cost LSU charged you for the actual tickets when you put in your order.

This is one of those situations where "what seems fair" and "what the tax law says" are two different things. We find that a lot with the 2018 tax cut act. It was a poorly, poorly written legislation with tons of unintneded consequences.

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Not a tax professional (so this is not tax advice), but I would think if this was a legitimate ticket reselling business you could deduct the tradition fund contribution as a subscription fee (maybe not the correct term, but you get the idea).

Since it doesn't appear to be an actual business, I doubt you can get away with this. Probably just gonna have to pay income tax on your ticket resale gains.