Yet Another Soul-Seller

I had nothing to do with it.

Carrie Crain’s soul is for sale on eBay and the starting bid is $1,000.

“Whoever bids on my soul, they need to take it seriously,” she said. “I hope I transfer all my good, positive energy to them, and they will do great things. That’s what I hope … transfer my creativity to them,” she said.

…

Bidding for Crain’s soul ends Wednesday. The winning bidder will receive Crain’s soul inside a Magic 8 Ball she’s had since fifth grade. They’ll also get a certificate of spiritual authenticity.

“Good, positive energy?” Seriously?!

Ugh… She seems to believe what she’s saying. That’s not funny or clever. That’s just sad. Why sell your soul if you actually believe it has some supernatural qualities?

Oh. She’s writing a screenplay about it. Now it all makes sense…

Anyway, this shouldn’t last long. eBay doesn’t allow you to sell souls.

***Update***: The auction has been taken down.

(Thanks to TXatheist for the link!)

[tags]atheist, atheism, Christian, Eileen Flynn[/tags]

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grazatt

Shit is getting kind of old now!
Mark

It’s been done. 😉
Becky

Souls seem a dime a dozen, a quick search brings up item # 320272382106. A dime a dozen? I mean, $.99 😉
Gabriel

As a tax accountant I have been thinking about this since I first found this website. Normally under tax law when you sell something of value it is taxed on schedule D of the 1040 form for capital gains or losses. If you have a capital loss you are currently limited to a deduction of $3000.00 a year. If you lost more than that the remaining loss is carried forward to the next year. So if you accept the point of view of religious people that the soul is priceless then anyone who sells their soul on ebay will have taken a capital loss that is infinite. So Hemant should have a $3000.00 deduction for the rest of his life. If the government were to turn this down they would be in the position of denying the existence of the immortal soul or of it’s value. That would be an interesting headline. “IRS states that the soul doesn’t exist” or “IRS rules that soul has no value.” Hemant you should file amended returns for each year since you sold your soul to get some money back. Or if you ever make a killing in the stock market or from a movie deal from your book then you could offset all of that income with the loss.
ubi dubius

Gabriel, wouldn’t that be true only if the cost basis were equal to the value? So, I didn’t pay for my soul, so the basis would be zero. Have I done anything to increase the basis? Soul improvements, for example? I can’t think of any, but if I had gone to India to study with a guru. . .

If I receive a soul by gift, for example from my wife when we married, we’d have a carryover basis, the same as her own cost basis. Probably zero. She did go to church camp a few times, could those expenses have increased its basis?

Now, if I INHERITED my soul, it would have a basis equal to the value on the date of death. I wonder if I could use a family limited liability company to achieve that result. I’ll check some cases and get back to you.
ubi dubius

A soul is a gift from one’s parents. Griswold v. Lucifer.
The basis of a gift is a carryover basis, i.e., the basis in the hands of the donor. Angel Gabriel v. Commissioner. In this case, mother and father. What Capital Improvements did Hemant’s mother and father invest in his soul to create a basis? Most medical expenses don’t count, they are for maintenance. Perhaps in vitro fertilization or adoption expenses would count? I’m not sure. You should review Commissioner v. Beelzebub. At any rate, the basis is probably still low.

Now, if one or both parents died before or during birth, one could argue instead of a gift, the soul is transferred to Hemant as an inheritance (either half of it or all of it). This would give Hemant an extremely large or even infinite basis (value on date of death) resulting huge losses, as Gabriel pointed out. OTOH, it would also have created a tremendous estate tax liability on the part of the estate of the deceased parent. If the estate filed an estate tax return (that did not include the value of Hemant’s soul) and received an approval letter, then the statute of limitations would have run by now and it would be OK. If no return were filed, the statute would not have begun running and it would be a problem.

I can find no case on point. Should we request a private letter ruling?

I am assuming U.S. Tax Law would apply. That might not be a correct assumption.
Gabriel

I believe that the basis of a soul would be the value as a gift. The giver would be god. My understanding of this is that a soul is of infinite value to god. I guess that a letter ruling from the IRS would be the best way to determine this and would be just as much fun. Also you could claim that all of the education you have received would be a capital improvement. Hemant could request an IRS letter ruling and then publish the letter on his website when he finally got one. By the way I am very impressed by the creativity of the comments. Damn, I wish I was that smart.