Has anyone properly investigated these buttons.
Part of me wonders if it’s just giving them $20 off their taxes.
Edit: Assuming they follow the law, they don’t use your point of sale donations according to this article
https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/who-gets-tax-benefit-those-checkout-donations-0
Half errant OG statement: It’s absolutely a tax write off for them. It’s a double bonus for them because they can choose which charity it goes too as well.
What happens to the money you donate at the cash register?
This is where you round up your bill to give to a charity designated by the retailer, and the donation amount appears on your receipt. The store serves only as a collection agent for your gift. Assuming the business is following the law, it will not include your donation as part of its business receipts, or income, nor will it claim the charitable gift as an expense.
In other words, your gift has zero impact on the store’s income taxes. Keep in mind that the store chooses the receiving charity, so make sure it is one you can support. As a customer, the donation will appear on your receipt and you can claim it as a charitable deduction when you file your income tax return. But you probably won’t.
Assuming the business is following the law
Considering the amount of wage theft that goes on, I never assume that.
I wonder if the credit card processor takes their percentage of the transaction and then kicks some of that back to the retailer for donations. It seems like that would end up being a tiny amount of money, though.
It absolutely isn’t.
I did your work for you
You might think so, but the stores don’t get to write it off.
They may not get to write it off, but they do get to benefit from the PR of bragging about how much they donate to charity, and they can also handpick the charity, many of which are just fronts for corporations to greenwash/whitewash their activities.
They certainly don’t do that sort of thing out of the goodness of their heart.
And? The charity gets its cause in front of millions of people.
A mutually beneficial arrangement isn’t a bad thing. This is basically just paying for advertising, which every charity ever does.
Actually she recently posted a video about it: https://youtu.be/NK383aei0ao
I think you’re being given an incomplete picture here. It is a tax write off but it’s balanced out by the money they collect. So if they collect 100K in donations, they report that as “income” but it’s immediately written off as a charitable donation. Thus, they don’t directly get anything out of it as it’s functionally a net-zero transaction as far as their taxes are concerned. In fact, it probably ends up costing them a bit once you account for the hours spent by some admin or marketing team getting the program set up and administered.
Obviously they are getting something out of it: As others here have said, they get to brag about all the money they collected for charity. It’s possible these big corps also have some convoluted accounting practices that make this further advantageous but on the face of things that’s not how it works.
They do not record it as income, nor do they write it off on taxes. Those are your donations, they are merely a collector. You can claim those donations on your own taxes.
I suppose you may indeed be correct. I always assumed not as it’s not like they give you a donation receipt like when you directly donate to a charity. Now that I think of it, however, the donation itself would be itemized on the receipt and could therefore be used as proof in a personal audit. I just never really considered it as I just donate like 2 bucks here or there via this means.
I suppose this also might vary in different jurisdictions.
End of story, I’m willing to admit that I may have been misinformed (AKA wrong) myself.
You do get a donation receipt from them. If it’s not a separate receipt, then it will be on your purchase receipt.
In my experience I’ve never received a separate receipt just for the donation portion (again, could just be a regional thing). But as we both mentioned, it’d at least be listed on the purchase receipt itself and could be used as such.
It happens, and is somewhat common. So in what way is the practice a benefit for the corp? I doubt it is just bragging rights?
It largely is bragging rights, actually. Good PR is very valuable to a corp. And if the corp is running the charity it is also collecting donations to, then that’s double the good PR. For example, if they’re collecting donations for a charity that helps kids get involved in the arts, and they themselves run the charity, they can both say they raised a ton of money for charity and show the good work their charity has done.
This is good stuff, I want to stress. Charities are rarely for bad causes, though of course that can be slightly subjective and I encourage people to only support causes they believe in. But charity is being done, and the corp is not getting a tax write off, but rather good PR.
Virtue signaling is the purpose. It convinces some people that they care. They don’t need to care, they just want to look like they do.
Donations reduce tax liability. They are donating your money in the name so yes, that’s exactly why they do this. Plus they get to say, “we donated xxxxxx to end give this year!”
Every time an employee asks me If I want to round up, I tell them no, their company can handle their own tax liability.
(I could be wrong but I don’t fucking know and they have enough to donate I don’t)
This isn’t true. The stores don’t get tax benefits from your donation.
Thank you for combating misinformation. I appreciate knowing the facts.
This is one of those things where even though the truth is important, the fact that people thought this is what was happening is a sign of a poor relationship. It’s like if a person thinks their partner cheated when they went to Las Vegas. Even if the partner did not cheat, the person believing that it was not only possible but likely is a sign that the relationship is toxic. The implication is that the partner is not in the relationship voluntarily or for the mutual benefit of both. Rather, the relationship has become antagonized and transactional. The partners are not helping each other grow. They are in a relationship in which taking advantage of the other is expected because it has happened multiple times already.
Having a reason for seeing everything in a negative light doesn’t make it a healthy way to view the world.
At least verify your assumptions before sharing them.
Good to know. Still not giving them my money when my “round up” is a rounding error for them I’m sure.
Assuming they’ve selected a good organization to donate to, that’s a shame - especially for local charities that really benefit from the money.
The whole point is that it’s a “rounding error” for the customer, but it adds up. If you round up 50 cents for 50 grocery trips a year, that’s only $25. If 2,000 other customers do it, that’s a $50,000 donation from just one store.
I don’t donate directly to anything, unfortunately, so if I see a good cause like St. Jude or a local charity at checkout, sure I’ll round up.
I think there’s a bit of a difference paying cash vs. card — with cash, rounding errors basically mean, “this money will go to a cause rather than get lost in my couch cushions.” With a card, the rounding errors add up — for the charity, yes, but also for the customer.
I think another point is, why isn’t the large corporation using their rounding errors instead of mine?
But to each their own of course.
They do make their own donations, separately, often. Customers’ donations are just another way.
I guess think of it from the charity’s perspective. Checkout donations are steady fundraising for them that supplements their other more sporadic and difficult fundraising attempts. I imagine they solicit the stores to do this for them when they’re not organizing 5Ks and hosting dinners for rich people.
If it’s upsetting that stores get to promote themselves for doing it, then just donate directly. Same difference.
I don’t see why this is a bad thing? It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. The store gets brownie points and the charity gets their cause in front of more people.
If you donate through these buttons and keep your receipts, you can write it off on your own taxes.
I’ve never seen a $20 button - usually they round up to the nearest dollar or have $1-3 suggestions. Not worth the trouble to keep track for most normal taxpayers.
Call me cynical, but I think maybe it’s not going to go to end child hunger even if someone does decide to click yes
In the 90’s, Good Will was exposed for spending 80% of what they took in on running the company and salaries. There was also something about the CEO paying his wife for a bullshit role, or she was the CEO and made millions per year.
Unless I know the charity personally (as in I’ve looked at what they take in and what they spend), they get fuck all from me.
I have a local charity that publishes a pamphlet every year showing a high level of what they take in, and what they spend money on (buying clothes/food for people, maintenance on their facilities, etc), including any salaries (largely maintenance on facilities, accountants, and a couple folks in management).
Over 80% of what they get in donations goes directly to helping people.
Unless a charity is open like this, they’re a scam in my mind.
So according to his autobiography, when Lenny Bruce was young and poor and struggling, he bought himself a priest’s outfit and went around soliciting donations for some charity cause.
He said it was a great gig. He would walk around during the day, all these housewives and widows would invite him inside and he’d sit down and they’d make him tea and snacks and hang out with him, hanging on his every word, and then they’d give him lots of money. He sent like 50% of it to the charity cause and kept 50% to live on.
Eventually, the cops figured it out, and he got arrested. This was in the middle of him doing the charity thing, so he was still dressed as the priest, and this army of angered housewives came out of their houses to try to defend him against the forces of evil that were trying to arrest him, and he had to kind of calm them down and say it was okay, and then the cops took him away.
In the end, he was able to prove that he was actually sending along a big chunk of the money to the supposed cause he was fundraising for, actually much higher than the percentage that was sent along from most working charities. So nothing about it was fraudulent. It’s not illegal to wear a priest’s clothes and he wasn’t lying about the charity part, and so they just shrugged and let him go. I think he stopped doing it, though, because he didn’t want to create some kind of crazy blowback if the housewives all got wind that he wasn’t really a priest.
That’s a great story! Thank you for sharing it. What a guy!
I feel the same when celebrities use their “platform” to generate donations for a cause. It’s like you made $100m on your last movie, gave $50k and got the other $1.5m from just regular people.
Yet most are like “yes but good still happened” and I’m like yes but by that logic, I could take 90% of your paycheck and say, “yes well you still made 10% which is way better than nothing!”
Moreover, who gets all the credit and publicity? Yup, the celebrity. Not Joan Lam from MI who gave $50 and makes $45k a year.
I also think that some celebrities charges their appearance so they get paid when participating because they bring more donations.
Absolutely. Most non profits take a huge cut of donations so only a fraction make it to those that need help. UNICEF is always under fire and at one time, they estimated that like only 10% would make it to the needy. Every UNICEF tv spot, ad or spread in a magazine is paid for by donations. So is all the staff their hire. And they actually pay really well. Again, all taken from the donations.
Most charities are just a business that doesn’t pay taxes and the execs all have cushy jobs.
but by that logic, I could take 90% of your paycheck and say, “yes well you still made 10% which is way better than nothing!”
That’s already happening :)
Isn’t it because the store or restaurant uses your donation for a tax write off?
They do not. It is not income, so they can’t claim it as a deduction. The customer could claim it as a deduction if they wanted, but these donations are small enough I’m sure they really aren’t worth tracking for an individual.
No, but they’ll mention in their commercials how many millions they helped donate to charity. They’ll include a shot of somebody in a wheelchair or with some sort of injury smiling. Then they’ll show one of their workers smiling. Then, for some reason, the sun blowing out the camera lens. Finally they’ll show their logo and the charity’s logo, maybe with a line saying how much they care.
Legally they can’t here, BUT they shove it down the customers throat about how much better they are for donating then you are and how you should be disgusted with yourself and buy some 12$ lays potato chips and 65$ ice cream that they so graciously put on sale for $2 off provided you use their app and suck galen Weston’s dick in his castle
The cherry on the top is that it is sometimes through some of their own foundations like the kfc youth foundation etc. That is just so rich. Sure here is some more money for you to push agendas. Fucking hell.
Corporations cannot feel guilt. A customer who never goes hungry might, and might be convinced to donate (which, if done through the checkout also means a tax benefit for the supermarket).
which, if done through the checkout also means a tax benefit for the supermarket
No absolutely not. Is the customer that donated and thus gets the benefit of not paying tax on the money that was donated.
This checks out. Thank you for educating me.
For any doubters, here’s a long-form article on the subject: https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/who-gets-tax-benefit-those-checkout-donations-0
“Yeah, I definitely want to give some of my money to a completely unknown and unvetted ‘charity’ just because an electronic screen that has access to my bank card asked!”
Many stores do donate to charities. (not out of the goodness if their hearts, because they don’t have hearts)
Point of sale donation collections are not tax write offs for the companies, no matter how many times the lie is repeated on the internet. Those donations are yours and you can claim them on your taxes.
You should not feel guilted into donating if you cannot afford it, and you shouldn’t donate to a cause you don’t believe in. But POS donation collections are a force for good, getting charitable causes in front of the eyes of millions.
I guess I just have such a tainted view of corporations that my immediate thought is “what’s in it for them?” It makes it pretty easy to accept the misinformation at face value, unfortunately. I still don’t trust them to be responsible for collecting and appropriating donations faithfully either way.
The PR is in it for them.
I’ve been saying this for years! Never donated ever.
That’s the thing, they are making their own donations with the money you provide so they can write it off as a charitable donation, so they can pay less in taxes.
Just donate directly to a reputable charity and mash that “HELL NO” button
If you mean they are donating from their own profits, yes they can write that off. But these customer donations are not income for them and cannot be written off by the company.
https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-000329849244
But people should research charities before giving, some are many times more effective than others.
https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/en/best-charities-to-donate-to-2024
Not to mention why the fuck would you trust them with your donation?
I have no issues if they match what I give.
Rebecca Watson also has a YouTube channel debunking modern irrationalities and conspiracies.
Be the change you want to see. Give yourself a $22.00 employee discount for self checkout and then give that $20 donation!
Can we talk about that coupon for potatoes? I could really use that coupon.
