April 15 has been tax day in the US for as long as anybody can remember, but with the weekend and all, most of us have ’til Monday to file and some of us in the Northeast have ’til Tuesday.
The thing I don’t like about tax time is that it brings out the worst in me. Most any other time of the year I’m a pinko liberal, but the anticipation of taxes makes me look decidedly conservative and ornery. An example from last year might include the herculean efforts I went through to donate an old vehicle before ‘less advantageous’ 2005 tax laws took effect.
And though my taxes for this year have been filed for some time (about 27 hours now), I’m ashamed to have to admit now wondering about the tax value of my blood donations.
I wasn’t surprised to find mention of this at Halfbakery and WhyNot? at the top of the Google results, but I was surprised to learn that blood might be best valued at about $250 per unit. I’d been estimating $25, based on what I’d heard about what I’ve heard people get paid for plasma.
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`[I don’t like linking here][5], but they make this claim:
One recent study of over 400 college students, age 18 to 22, found that 10 percent have sold their Blood plasma at least once for cash payments of from $9 to $20 per visit. Of that group, three out of five are former Red Cross donors who stopped donating Blood for a lollipop and a T-shirt when they started selling their plasma for cash!
eHow, meanwhile, tells prospective plasma sellers to check at their nearest college campus for information on the nearest plasma collection center.``
But just as my friends began to worry I’d be forever stuck on this tax write-off thing, I discovered “The Blood Brokers, How The Gift Of Life Became A Billion Dollar Business” and remembered my liberal ways again.