Hi mhpage,

Great, thanks for that. I'll send you an email after I've discussed with people on this end how many we want.

Legally, no one can exchange cash. (Otherwise, everyone would be able to order the book directly from the printer.) That's why I'm presently footing the bill. I appreciate the tax deduction point, and I am working on a solution. (By that same logic, however, shouldn't you be giving me all of your to-be-donated cash, and then I'll donate it on your behalf and get a further tax deduction?)

This situation actually made me think more about what can be done around the legality/problems with these types of arrangements. At the moment though I agree that we don't have a good answer to your concern in this area at the moment so no worries at all if you want to do the ordering.

Thanks for your reply mate, chat soon.

EA orgs don't have Australian tax deductibility, but I think we could probably give through this system too. Aussies could give to an EA expense which can't be claimed on tax such as;

1. Expenses incurred through running a GWWC chapter - hiring a lecture hall, food, copies of an EA book etc
2. mhpage's offer to print EA handbooks (I would imagine)
3. Paul and Katja's grant experimental EA funding (I would imagine)

In exchange, a partner could give to an EA org which they can get tax deducibility on of the Aussie's choice.

Without allocating them specifically, the gains from trade in this instance will only go to the person who gives to the org and gets a tax deduction; splitting this up would incentivise Aussies to get involved in trading. Brian Tomasik suggests a 50/50 split.

Most of the concerns raised above hold in this example, but can anyone think of a reason specific to this trade which is problematic? The main one I can see is that this would require some publicising for people to put EA expenses on the spreadsheet as well as EA donations. Another which might be stronger in this instance is the difficulty of Aussies trying to select the partner with the best tax deduction.

I've put my name and contact details on the spreadsheet and pending no-one thinking of a good reason this is a bad idea, I'm happy for people to contact me to get in touch with Aussie donors initially. There will be more than $10 000 available at the Australian end for these trades.

Thanks for this idea, I'd love to take you up on it. To figure out how many I want:

1. How long would it be before you would consider a reprint?
2. How much would it cost to ship them to the postcode 4740, Queensland, Australia?

PS. I might want a hundred or something, in that case I should give you some cash. Donations to EA orgs aren't tax deductible in Australia, so the counterfactual to me buying them is me giving to EA orgs without a tax deduction, whereas your counterfactual to you buying them is (presumably) you giving to EA orgs with a tax deduction. PPS. It seems like everyone else personally messaged you which I can't figure out how to do, sorry...