Everyone is talking about how taxes work and no one is talking about how this meme works. He doesn’t need glasses anymore! It looks blurry with his glasses!
He’s even squinting!
Fitting considering how cash register donations usually do not work the way it is described in the meme.
This is not how tax deductions for charitable donations work.
- You round up to the dollar for a 50c donation
- The business has 50c extra income
- They write off 50c as tax deductible
- They pay the exact same taxes whether or not you make a donation
Sure, but they also get to advertise that they donated X thousands of dollars to charity, while the truth is that the actual donors get no tax benefits at all. And like OP said, I’d rather use https://charitynavigator.org/ to do my own research before giving money to a corporation to donate to some organization that may be mishandling their funds.
Yup, it’s not about stealing money it’s about stealing goodwill.
The customers at the grocery store don’t get thanked for donating $50 million to fighting awful childhood diseases, the grocery store does.
Then they can use that to argue they’re good for the community, and deserve massive tax subsidies when they go to open their next store.Unrelated, I’ve talked with people who work in the corporate philanthropy part of a business, and they’re fine. They’re just happy to get to use their position to organize charity, even though they know the point to the business is goodwill not giving.
It’s other parts of the business that then milk that goodwill in incredibly scummy ways.It’s about stopping centralized programs which would actually address public needs. “We don’t need universal healthcare, here’s a charity that helps people with the bubonic plague!”
And in the worst cases, it’s a grift for the wealthy. Where the charities exist to do scammy things like pay the founder to fly to luxury resorts to give a talk about why poverty is bad. Or to fund your family members solar manufacturing company. Or to put fuel into your church’s private jet so you don’t run the risk of catching demons from the public.
I don’t think that’s the intent behind it, but it’s certainly an impact.
Charity is a stopgap to a systematic solution to addressing a lot of problems.
Your local food bank isn’t bad, but it does hide the issue of food insecurity behind a solution that isn’t guaranteed to be available to everyone like UBI or expanded food stamp access would.Those cruddy charities do exist, but I think usually businesses try to avoid them because of the risk of backlash. The people running the programs usually try to do what they can to pick good charities at the least, since it’s basically all the same to the business.
Not much that they can do about the CEOs spouse getting a spot on the charity board though.
Then they can use that to argue they’re good for the community, and deserve massive tax subsidies when they go to open their next store.
So there is tax benefits, just with extra steps?
Yes, but not guaranteed, and usually “somewhere else”.
Instead of avoiding paying $50M in federal taxes like a lot of people think, they might be forgiven $1M in taxes at the local level, pending some sustained employment level for some duration or another.Point being, they’re usually not planning to do the charity to save tax money, but to gain goodwill. They definitely intend to use that goodwill to make or save money later, and a common way is “you want us in your community, don’t tax us in buying the land 🥺”.
They might also just use it for advertising so people forgive 5% higher prices.
That’s not how it works either. You’re the one naking a donation, you get a receipt for your 50 cent donation that YOU can claim on your taxes.
The business getting you to make a donation doesn’t get to claim your donation.
Both you and the business can claim that as a tax deduction.
They absolutely cannot.
#2 and 3 don’t actually happen since it can’t be recorded on the P&L.
The donation would get recorded to cash and offset to a liability account, probably something named Charitable Donations Payable likely with a subaccount for the specific programs.
Overall, the effect is essentially the same, though. Fwiw, I like to use the same comparison as you did to show to people how dumb this belief is.
The individual who donated at the register also is allowed to claim the donation when they file their taxes.
That’s not how tax filing works. Your #2 is completely wrong that’s not considered income.
Are you retarded?
Confidently incorrect.
Your meme is the wrong way around.
That’s not really how taxes work.
Your meme is backwards
The Nonprofit Industrial Complex: What Is It and How Does It Work?
This tax-exempt status has been a boon for the nonprofit sector. The code arguably encourages elites to divert money otherwise spent on taxes to private foundations where they can distribute funds as they see fit.
Look them in the eye as you tap “no”.
Cashiers don’t care, it saves them from whatever cringeworthy ’attention getter’ corporate policy like clapping or ringing a bell they’re compelled to do if you donate
I bought a bottle of water at the airport for $4.50
The POS kiosk asked me if I wanted to leave a tip. It was completely unintentional, but I chuckled at this dystopian scenario playing out, tapped “no” while starting to make eye contact with the cashier, they had a friendly smile so I just apologized but made sure to speak loudly and clearly over the airport sounds.
From her perspective, I must have looked like I boldly stared her in the eyes and chuckled at shorting her, then threw out an IRL #SorryNotSorry.
I hope her day improved after that unfortunate interaction…
I will say don’t give corporate any money for charity, instead donate yourself to your favourite charity & get tax benefits for this.
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I ask them if they wanna help pay my taxes and that I donate to who I chose and they should stop asking
Maybe don’t harass the cashier about it. They are just as helpless as you in dictating what the company does.
They could tell their managers the customer feedback. Otherwise the grift continues which sounds like you’re ok with
If you shop at a chain megacorp store, there’s probably like 10 layers of people you’d have to pass the info up to, which seems unlikely. Maybe better looking for customer feedback forms in person or online.
If you shop at a local independent, they either don’t do this sort of charity thing, or do it much more directly (as in the money doesn’t even flow through their own account) with a local charity or food bank, that sort of thing.
Ah yes, I take issue with people giving helpless workers a hard time for the offenses of their employer. I must be in on it. 🙄 Get over yourself. You’re not accomplishing anything with that nonsense other than adding onto the strife of the worker unfortunate enough to ring you up.
Here’s a hot tip - even if every imaginary step you think should take place happened, the execs wouldn’t give a shit what your complaint is. You’re still forking over your money, and that’s the only “customer feedback” they care about. They don’t care about your thoughts on their “grift”. They don’t care about the worker you’re harassing. They just care about the money. Don’t give it to them if you actually want to send a message. Otherwise, just leave the poor employees alone.
Being ok with the grift continuing and being in on the grift are different things. I said the first.
I am fully aware that even the manager and their manager etc have no control.
I cut businesses out of my life constantly for this reason and others, like showing ads at the pump. But not before telling someone once. Sorry I don’t do it exactly as you like
I am fully aware that even the manager and their manager etc have no control.
And yet you still harass them and defend doing so. What a joke.
Someone’s triggered
Enjoy the rest of your day/night this convo is over
