• MobileSuitBagera@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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    1 year ago

    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!

      • Piramic@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        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.

      • axtualdave@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It depends on exactly what the store is doing.

        If the store is representing the extra charge as a donation to a specific charity, generally, the customer can deduct that.

        If it’s far more vague, like, “Give $10 to help poor kids in Africa” the ultimate destination for the funds could be the company’s own ledgers, which it would then use for its own charitable activities and collect the tax deduction, as long as they “help poor kids in Africa.”

        And some stores are just lying. CVS, for instance, was sued as part of a class action suit when, after the company pledges $10 million to the American Diabetes Association, then collected money from customers to fund that pledge.

  • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    My 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.

    • LukeMedia@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Why don’t you help by lowering the prices and being more reasonable? How do I even now you’re actually using the money I donate for people’s bills? That’s a crazy donation request.

      • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Come on now, be reasonable. Lowering the prices would mean they can’t buy their 5th mansion. Just stop being selfish and give them a little more money.

  • fsk@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Those charities have huge overhead. Very little money goes to the actual cause.

    • Janus67@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I think that’s a myth as it isn’t income it goes into a separate fund to transfer 1:1.

      • neanderthal@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Even if it is revenue, it is still a net loss. All it does is reduce taxable income, which is still makes the donation a net loss. For anyone not aware, the current federal US corporate income tax rate is 21%. So if a company gives 100 dollars to charity, they only save 21 dollars in taxes, so they are still down roughly 79 dollars, depending on the state taxes of where they are incorporated.

    • neanderthal@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • git@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

      • LetMeEatCake@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        No, but you should still donate yourself. It allows you to focus on charities that you care the most about and which you can research as having the greatest potential positive impact.

        If you give $1 to Grocery Store to donate to Cause, what happens is Grocery Store gains $1 of taxable revenue, then they remove that $1 of taxable revenue with the deduction. All the deductions do is make it so that Grocery Store neither gains nor loses money from the forwarded donations. They simply aren’t paying taxes on the money you gave them to donate.

        The rules for this are good.

      • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah if it is a person asking me to donate on behalf of a company I’m like “why would I let this company take all the credit?” That usually ends the conversation as they impersonate an NPC immediately having to go into ‘think mode’.

  • Spacecraft@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • sirkook@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I can assure you that nobody working at the fast food restaurant gives a shit if you donate to charity.

      • Spacecraft@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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?

        • TskUghPfftUhh@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          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.

          • danielton@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Same. I got lectured so many times by customers who insisted I was stupid for daring to ask them and acted like I had some sort of personal stake in the charity.

            Then most of these same people would buy a ton of lottery tickets when I was in retail.

          • lightingnerd@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            On the other hand, I have heard people ask that question, answered yes, and then checked my receipt later to find out that I just handed $0.57 to round out the cashier’s drawer.

    • drmugg@lemmynsfw.com
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      1 year ago

      And redirecting you attention on to the “offsets” scam too.

      Ever wonder why climate change is such a problem if 1.5 pence per liter petroleum burnt can undo the damage? Spoiler: it can’t. You can’t sequester CO² for that cheap, and CO² isn’t the only issue. “Offsets” are not certified by any trustworthy third party, and companies intentionally don’t pry too much, so they can say “Oh sorry, didn’t know” if anyone investigates and discovers they did squat-all.

  • this@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Or just…donate the perfectly good food they constantly throw out into the cadged dumpsters designed to keep homeless people out… Litteraly would cost them nothing…

  • norapink@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I hate these donate screens because I have no idea where the donation actually goes and i don’t want to have to do a ton of research at the grocery checkout about whether its a good charity.

    • iAmTheTot@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I have never seen a donation bin/screen/what have you that didn’t say what charity it was for.

      If a business is collecting donations and then not giving them to the charities in question, that’s just fraud.

      • norapink@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Yeah but just because they name the charity doesn’t mean its a good charity. Some charities just aren’t good ones to donate to and you’re basically just throwing money down a well when you do donate to them.

  • zombuey@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    EDIT: US companies cannot do this in the US you can claim up to $300 on taxes. This is legit in the US.

    • Sendbeer@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      @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.

    • seang96@spgrn.com
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      1 year ago

      They also store it in a bank before donating to collect interest on it cause why not?

      • zombuey@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

  • Lifecoach5000@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • jackoneill@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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

  • Colt420@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    How bout the fact if they achieved their goals, they wouldn’t have a problem to have a charity for and thats a bigger concern to them. They’d rather not help people than not exist. They may as well just pretend they are the poor people their campaigning for. Or be technically homeless and donate to themselves while living in charity(company) owned residence

    • Clover🍀 @lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Nah the charities are usually legit. But the companies aren’t doing it out of the goodness of their heart, it’s a massive tax write off as well as free PR.

    • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Don’t tip on those things. The company supplying those things are getting the cut. And it’s mandatory. They are an office space scam.

    • iAmTheTot@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      This is a lie that I had hoped to leave behind on Reddit but lo and behold it’s so pervasive that it transcends social circles.

      Repeat after me: that is not how taxes work.

      They do not get any monetary benefit from your donations, save for arguably good publicity. They do not claim your donations in their taxes. They do not get extra write offs on their taxes.

      Those donations are yours and you could claim them on your taxes, if you were so inclined.

    • keet@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      This. The icing on the cake is that this tax write-off affects the amount of tax dollars available for public assistance in the first place. If you want to help the poor, consider volunteering your time or donating to a legitimate charity.