So I've been wanting to deploy BOINC in enterprise environments for the last few years now- and I've been dreaming up reasons which might justify it to the company...

Originally I had thought that it could be used as a sort of 'Bragging' point- a sort of "our company is better than the competition, because we help fight cancer, etc..." In fact, I still think I could probably manage to convince a few companies to use it as an advertising point- AND potentially start a trend or something...

The thing is though, is that running BOINC on hundreds or even thousands of computers DOES increase power consumption- as well as network and disk resources utilization, etc... And that fact alone- or coupled with the potential "security risk" are enough to make most CIO's / IS Leads to pretty firmly say "NO WAY JOSE"...

*BUT* - I think I just might have a convincing argument FOR volunteering computing time in the enterprise:

*IF* there's any possibility for deducting the value of donated cpu time from corporate taxes. Theoretically, it shouldn't be *too* difficult (with the help of a few management utilities, etc.) to keep track of EXACTLY how much actual time- as well as how much CPU/GPU time each machine ends up dedicating to BOINC projects- and exactly how much goes to each project as well. Figuring out some reasonable estimation of the amount of electricity consumed in the process shouldn't be all that tough to do- and measuring the amount of bandwidth consumed would be even easier. I'd assume that there'd be some amount of "wear-and-tear" which we'd be allowed to deduct for as well- And I see no reason why we couldn't also claim that the amount of hard drive space that we're dedicating to BOINC projects as a charitable donation as well...

SO:

I guess my question is: CAN volunteer computing be used as a tax deduction? Has / Does anybody do it right now?

Do you think my idea sounds reasonable, at the very least?

I would *MUCH MUCH MUCH* rather Directly contribute to a worthy and important cause than give money to the government- and I'm pretty sure there's A LOT of people who feel the same way..

If it turns out that volunteer computing IS tax deductable- I betcha I could convince a bunch of companies / organizations to start getting involved :)

Originally I had thought that it could be used as a sort of 'Bragging' point- a sort of "our company is better than the competition, because we help fight cancer, etc..." In fact, I still think I could probably manage to convince a few companies to use it as an advertising point- AND potentially start a trend or something...

When I was practicing that Other Religion I'd seen Google among contributors. Things could have gone FUBAR since then. And I've never seen Google mention it was couting F@H.

*IF* there's any possibility for deducting the value of donated cpu time from corporate taxes.

Sure it is,.. No, it's possible to achieve that goal. *You* have to bribe... No, forget it, you have to contribute to some lawmakers upcoming elections. And they will do anything you want.

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I'm counting for science,
points just make me sick.

I've been kicking around the same question this morning. In my case I'm trying to determine how as a University we could accomplish the same thing as we are already a non-profit and thus any tax deduction is already a mute point. I think where this is ultimately going to come to fruition is to have a computer manufacturer or video card manufacturer take the tax deduction for discounts given to organizations who are willing to take on these sorts of projects.

I'll give you an example applicable to a university type of setting:

A computer typically costs $2000 (support contracts cost lots of money)
Dell gives a $500 discount/machine if IT is willing to put BOINC on all machines for after hours use.

Dell receives the tax write-off, the University receives a discounted price per machine but with increased electricity costs (they kind of zero each other out), BOINC receives increased computing power. In this case we'll call it an overall draw except that now Dell as well as the University get to tout the fact that they're helping to cure cancer, promote AI, find ET, etc..... and how do you put a price on Good PR?

CPU cycles and CPU time/ run time etc may be a very hazy area for tax deductions. However, does volunteered real time, consisting of human work ( not computer work ) , have the option of tax deductions? I may be off on this but i think it is a viable way to estimate tax deductions. I spend X amount of time monitoring and configuring/running the software/program that the non-profit utilizes for their work. Now, for me personally, this amounts to....very little time, maybe a total of 50 minutes this week and only because I installed it this week and read documentation. I imagine actual work, or time spent on this would be minimal but could end up being an appreciable amount over the course of a year. Another part of the tax deductible consideration are as stated previously, Electricity. It has a real-world cost, and if you can produce real numbers on the amount of electricity you pay to run equipment for a non-profit you may be able to figure out a tax deduction. Now, most BOINC users run it on 'spare' cpu time, which could be very difficult to estimate electricity usage, however if you are able to find out the the wattage being pulled by your psu, and you would otherwise have the computer shutdown at night ( give about 8-9 hours of that wattage being used )you could figure out a real time cost of electricity which could be considered as part of the donation. You are in essence paying electrical costs for the services you are providing as a volunteer to the BOINC project. Im no tax specialist, but if you get down to it, you're providing a free rental of equipment and/or services to a non-profit which can be monetized for what you are spending on your donation, or what the cost is of the donated service ( electrical value + hourly work value ). Of course there may need to be some cooperation with BOINC and the different projects.