Remember kids, they also get to use the money they guilted off of you to reduce their tax liability because they get credit for donating your money!
This is not true. I am not from the US or a lawyer but these donations sould show up on your receipt and count as your direct donation to the charity. The store is just a middleman and does not get any benefit. Here is a random, semi recent article about it you can find a lot more if you look it up online.
I used to work for a retail chain many years ago and I do not think this is true for everywhere.
When we were asking for donations it was tracked and if our location didn’t get enough donations our store manager would get talked to by his district manager. I don’t know exactly what happened to the money once it was donated, but I don’t think they would have been so adamant about getting the donations if they didn’t make anything from it.
This was like 20 years ago though, maybe its different now.
They do not, at least in the US.
First, please don’t link to Reddit…
Many Of The Largest Charities In America Are Giant Money Making Scams
http://thetruthwins.com/archives/many-of-the-largest-charities-in-america-are-giant-money-making-scamsMy favorite one is when our utility company asks me to donate to help pay for people’s utilities like they aren’t raking in record amount of cash.
Those donations you make can help them deduct from taxes, right?
Here me out before accusing me of being a billionaire toady.
Not really, at least not in the US. Charitable contributions are a deduction from taxable income, not a credit, so it is still a net financial loss to donate.
Where the benefit comes is the PR and power over the organization they donate to and its sphere of influence.
It is a net loss if you donate your own money, in this situation Company isn’t donating from its own revenue. It is donating customers money.
If I donated 1000$ and claimed tax deductible it would be a net loss. But if I asked everyone for donations, raised 1000$, donated that and claimed tax deductible that wouldn’t be a net loss.
Thats really jewish anyway to call a deducatable a donation.
fucking antisemite
Those charities have huge overhead. Very little money goes to the actual cause.
There are sites to check how much actually goes out. Check before you donate.
I hate when they pull this shit at drive through fast food. “Would you like to round up to donate to our charity?”
Who knows what the person taking my order thinks about this charity, and what they might do to someone’s food who says no.
Edit: The fact that merely implying a fast food worker wouldn’t be a complete perfect human being gets so many downvotes says a whole lot about this community.
I can assure you that nobody working at the fast food restaurant gives a shit if you donate to charity.
How can you assure me of that lol.
You think nobody at a fast food place is capable of thinking someone is an asshole for declining to donate to charity? And then acting on that?
I used to work fast food and retail, both which forced employees to ask customers to donate at the till. We hated doing it. It is awkward for both the customer and the worker. I would get anxiety when donation drive time of year would come round, and I’d feel relief when the customer either just said no or yes, and didn’t yell at me for asking. The cashier REALLY does not care if you donate or not. And the cashier usually does not make your food, it’s usually someone else doing the cooking, and the cooks aren’t paying attention at all to whether you donated or not.
Just FYI this is a sort of scam. The company donates the money on your behalf and they get the tax write-off for your donation while also appearing philanthropic for PR purposes. that’s why they do it.> e fair, I bet these companies strike deals with the charitable organizations to in turn raise visibility of those charities among the company’s customers. Furthermore there is no contractual obligation they actually donate that money or how. They could just be lying to you.
They cannot, and do not, claim your donations on their taxes.
@zombuey I’ve heard that a lot, but it is apparently not true unless the company claims your donation as a profit and then writes it off, which negates any tax benefit. I think it’s more just a PR thing to make you feel good about that company while using your own money.
They cannot claim it as profit if they are following the law.
They also store it in a bank before donating to collect interest on it cause why not?
Ah yes further proof that companies don’t give a fuck about anything ixcept making more money.
Furthermore, there is no contractual agreement on how or when they donate that money. So for example those companies might and likely will hold that money in trust to the non-profit. That way the company can use money as a hedge on taxes in future fiscal periods if they had an excess.
People that give money for those charities are giving those companies free tax write offs.
You donate $10 or whatever. The company can then claim that $10 as a write off via donation to that charity. Campaign as a whole (either regional or national) collects $1M USD. Corporate accountants write off donation. Tax liability reduced.
That’s not how tax write offs work. The only way to claim that money in a write-off would be for the business to also claim it as revenue. That would even out, with no tax savings. Businesses also don’t handle donations that way, they usually serve as a collection agent that just passes your donations on without being able to claim it towards their revenue or their tax write offs. The only person who can write-off their donation is the person who actually made it.
The reason businesses do it is for marketing. They get to put out a press release saying “They helped donate $10 million to puppies without borders.”
Puppies do not recognize your silly imaginary borders and will commit zoomies across any such lines.
That’s not how tax write offs work
Jerry: So we’re gonna make the Post Office pay for my new stereo now?
Kramer: It’s a write-off for them.
Jerry: How is it a write-off?
Kramer: They just write it off.
Jerry: Write it off what?
Kramer: Jerry, all these big companies, they write off everything.
Jerry: You don’t even know what a write-off is.
Kramer: Do you?
Jerry: No, I don’t.
Kramer: But they do. And they’re the ones writing it off.
Shell’s audacity too…
Then they will say it is more efficient to merge the donations with regular revenue and make bulk donations every quarter or something.
PSA: most Americans can get up to $300 deducted from their annual taxes through donations.
And I will never ever give these fools my actual phone number for discounts. Just use any area code w/ 867-5309 to get around this.
Jenny Jenny, who can I turn to? You give me something I can hold on to. I know you think I’m like the others before who saw your name and number on the wall
Yeah, this really bothers me. Because in reality, that company that you give money to at checkout is just going to bundle that all up and it’s a donation in their name, used as a tax write-off. You as the shopper might feel nice and warm and fuzzy, but you’re just giving a multimillion or billion dollar company a tax break. Just donate as yourself. If you want to help XYZ cause, do it on your own. My two cents.
That’s not how it works, at least in the US. You are donating as yourself, and can use the donation as a tax write off if you would like.
Thank you for the link. To be clear to anyone too lazy to click (which you should do to verify anyway) this is a source that confirms that businesses don’t get to claim your donation as their own.
They cannot and do not use your donations as a tax write off. That’s not how taxes work.
I hate when any company I’m buying something from does this.
Just wait until you get a tip prompt on a self checkout kiosk…
