Has anyone done these? I got an email about doing one, fee is pretty good, as is reimbursement but there were no details on how the shop worked. I don't know if "Junk" is part of the company name or not so I don't want to name the MSC. I have a lot of junk I can get rid of .

I wish they had them where I live. I had to get a dumpster for some cleanup work I did. I've seen them, but they're 100 miles from here.

I don't think Junk is part of the company name; junk is what they haul away.

if the same one i'm thinking of i had them do shop [an estimated shop]
kind nice when shop comes to you,
the junk is part of their company name

I did one! Easy. Got rid of some stuff that my husband had laying around.
Got paid and reimbursed. Hardest part is the prep work before they get
there (meaning setting out the stuff you want to get rid of).

I did the one where you just get an estimate, and the hardest part was dealing with the persistant sales guy, who was gorgeous and Australian. It would have been a lot easier if I could have actually unloaded some junk and gotten reimbursed.

Otherwise, easy and no $ outlay!

This one offered reimbursement so I'm assuming they haul away junk . I mainly want to know how the timing works. If it's something that needs to be done by "Wednesday", I need to know if I will have time to get the junk together. Also, how much junk will the reimbursement cover, LOL.

I've done both: an estimate and a haul away. I found the estimate more difficult because they kept wheeling and dealing with me trying to take stuff out of my garage that I wanted like metal folding chairs, tools etc.

The reimbursement was for the minimum amount only so you can easily go over that amount and end up paying out of pocket. The mimimum is about the amount of space on the truck that a small chest of drawers takes up.

RobinMarie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've done both: an estimate and a haul away. I
> found the estimate more difficult because they
> kept wheeling and dealing with me trying to take
> stuff out of my garage that I wanted like metal
> folding chairs, tools etc.
>
> The reimbursement was for the minimum amount only
> so you can easily go over that amount and end up
> paying out of pocket. The mimimum is about the
> amount of space on the truck that a small chest of
> drawers takes up.


Really???? The reimbursement amount was $100-188....is that what you had too?

I like these shops when I have clothes and paper type junk that needs to be removed. The reimbursement fee for the shop is based on the minimum charged cost to have junk removed. It is estimated on the amount of space used insidethe truck.

RIMS Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Really???? The reimbursement amount was
> $100-188....is that what you had too?

I believe the amount was 129

Yup, I've done both an estimate and an actual haul away. I didn't think I had much stuff, but they considered it half a truck if I remember right, and I think I had to pay about $500, with getting $129 or so back. I thought that would be such a high reiumbursement, but the other poster is correct. It's about the space of two medium sized file cabinets is all that will buy you.

I was quoted $129 for a small sewing table, a lamp, and a couple fishing poles.

The guy who gave my estimate said that they donate whatever possible to places like Goodwill, Salvation Army, Habitat For Humanity ReSTORE, local relief places, shelters, etc, to cut down on the amount of stuff they have to pay to take to dumps. He also said the company gets tax write-offs for the donations.

I never heard of this before but I think i saw one of their trucks today when I was getting gas in Phoenix. 1-800-and yes the word "junk" was in the name.

Odd name for a company. Kind of a mini dump truck.


Let's see... you're paying them to take your junk away. They are not buying your junk. I wonder on what basis they get a tax deduction for the donation since they got it basically for free. Wonder if they ran that past the IRS before including that in their business model.

[www.irs.gov]

Pretty nifty business model, but one that makes me a bit put-off by them. After learning that, I would never use their services.

"Ordinary income property. Ordinary income property
is property that would result in ordinary income or
short-term capital gain if it were sold at its FMV on the
date it was contributed. Examples of ordinary income
property are inventory, works of art created by the donor,
and capital assets held for 1 year or less. The deduction
for a gift of ordinary income property is limited to the FMV
minus the amount that would be ordinary income or
short-term capital gain if the property were sold." From the IRS instructions for the charitable donation form.


If the junk hauler sold the old couch instead of donating it, they would have "ordinary income" equal to what they sold it for, which would be its fair market value (FMV).

According to this clause from the IRS instructions, they could deduct as a charitable donation the FMV of the couch they donated, but they would have to reduce the donation by the amount that would be ordinary income if it were sold -- which equals the FMV. FMV minus FMV equals zero.

Therefore they cannot legally take a donation deduction from their taxes for donating the junk you paid them to haul off.

Their CPA will explain that to them about six months from now.....

While it's admirable that they donate the usable stuff instead of hauling it to a landfill, it is not right for them to take a charitable donation for doing so. And their expenses to haul it to the charity are already business deductions for other reasons, so they can't deduct that as a charitable donation either.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/2014 06:06AM by dspeakes.

I don't think the ordinary property clause applies to used items. It shows that it falls under non-cash property, not inventory or works of art.

When my guy gave me the estimate, and I questioned the price being so high, he said that the price is by volume, and is based on numerous factors, including the cost of paying the dump in order to deposit the truck load.

But, if they're taking some of the stuff to Goodwill, they're not only paying less to dump, they're also getting a tax write-off.

BBird, if they are taking a tax deduction, they are breaking the law.

"Ordinary income property
is property that would result in ordinary income or
short-term capital gain if it were sold at its FMV on the
date it was contributed."

The key here is the term "short-term capital gain" and that is triggered any time you sell an item for more than you paid for it.

They are paying nothing for the items. Therefore, if they were to sell it, they would trigger short-term capital gain. (Or, they could put items in a store, making them inventory, and trigger the same clause if they sold them.)

so the donation of these items equals the FMV of what they donated minus the taxable income they would get had they sold them, which in this case is the same amount therefore their deduction is zero.


I have been a professional tax preparer for seventeen years. They cannot legally take a deduction for donating these items.


It absolutely does not matter if the items are used or new. What matters is what they paid for them.

So how does it work for them?

Who says it works for them? Maybe they haven't been audited yet. However, Wikipedia says only this: On average, the company diverts from the landfill over 60% of the items it picks up,[1] and franchise partners donate goods and services to community and charity organizations.

It does not say they are taking a tax deduction, only that they donate the stuff. It is possible to donate out of the goodness of your heart, even if not getting a tax break for it.

I suspect the driver who said that had no idea what he was talking about. He may have assumed they were getting a tax deduction, but since the driver likely is not the accountant, how would he know what actually hits the tax return?

What I don't understand is why someone would pay these people a lot of good money to have things hauled away that they could have the Goodwill haul away for free and also get their own tax write off. I get hiring someone for debris from construction or just junky junk the Goodwill does not want. I looked into this job once and found the same thing others found. For the reimbursement amount they would only haul an amount I could easily have just thrown in my home trash can for pickup day.