5 ms·

I wonder if anyone has ever thought of a law that would allow for large corporations to repatriate some of their overseas dollars tax-free, or defer corporate t

by grej 9y ago

I wonder if anyone has ever thought of a law that would allow for large corporations to repatriate some of their overseas dollars tax-free, or defer corporate taxes they'd otherwise have to pay, provided they went toward altruistic purposes, where one of those altruistic purposes could be contribution to broadly used open source libraries. Obviously a lot more of the details would need to be worked out to try and minimize how much companies try and game that to simply fund their own research tax-free, but I wonder if the type of behavior you're looking for could be economically incentivized given the right corporate tax legal reforms.

cookiecaper 9y ago
Wouldn't this already be effective as long as the project was under the umbrella of an appropriate 501(c)3? Not necessarily the repatriation bit. I'm not a tax expert by any means so I am legitimately asking. From a quick search, it looks like the IRS does sometimes allow businesses to make deductible contributions to a 501(c)3, but that it first attempts to determine if the business expects to receive a "substantial return benefit". [0] The IRS seems to already have specific rules around "qualified sponsorship payments". [1] [0] https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/tools-resources/corporate-sponsorship-income-taxable-or-charitable-contribution https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/tools-resources/corporat... [1] https://www.irs.gov/publications/p598/ch03.html#en_US_201701_publink100011928 https://www.irs.gov/publications/p598/ch03.html#en_US_201701...
- guimarin 9y ago
  One easy way around this is to do what all the NYC foundations do. That is, give to other people's charities, and they in turn will give to yours. That is only small potatoes compared to donating to a political campaign and taking the money you don't spend on the campaign off the table tax free. A lot more things make sense through that lens. I could imagine a situation where Google who doesn't benefit from every OSS project, gives to project that Facebook benefits from, and Facebook to one's that Google does ad infinitem.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
ocdtrekkie 9y ago
The problem is a lot of those "altruistic purposes" tend not to be so altruistic, when you look into why they do them. Take for example, when Google recently chose to donate a bunch of hardware to schools instead of giving their employees an annual gift. Google gifted schools Chromebooks, which seems like an incredible act of charity. Except for the fact that you have to pay a subscription to Google to use them. Which means they really just managed to get a tax write-off while picking up more customers. How do you ensure a company is doing something in the best interests of society or the charity or organization they are donating to, rather than in the best interests of themselves?
- vostok 9y ago
  > Google gifted schools Chromebooks, which seems like an incredible act of charity. Except for the fact that you have to pay a subscription to Google to use them. Do you happen to have a reference for this? G suite for education is free as far as I know and I wasn't able to find anything else that you might be referring to.
  - tempaccount7827 9y ago
    Google doesn't need to charge to make a profit. Don't forget their primary business is advertising, so by getting more people to use their services, they gain. Also, by extending their reach to inside the schools, they effectively set up a way to "educate" kids to use their services.
  - ocdtrekkie 9y ago
    Check out this page for a start on Chrome device licenses: https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/2717664?hl=en https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/2717664?hl=en You can see an educational portal listing the cost of the management license at $30 here, which isn't really a complete picture, but demonstrates that we aren't talking about something they give schools for free: https://edu.google.com/products/devices/ https://edu.google.com/products/devices/ Note that this is kinda of well-hidden, but that last link cites the "total cost of ownership" of a $149 Chromebook over three years as $588, which should give you an idea the difference between the hardware they give away, and the eventual cost of everything you need to deploy the suckers. Schools is definitely big money for Google, it's just well-disguised as an altruistic endeavor.

by grej 9y ago

cookiecaper 9y ago

Wouldn't this already be effective as long as the project was under the umbrella of an appropriate 501(c)3? Not necessarily the repatriation bit. I'm not a tax expert by any means so I am legitimately asking. From a quick search, it looks like the IRS does sometimes allow businesses to make deductible contributions to a 501(c)3, but that it first attempts to determine if the business expects to receive a "substantial return benefit". [0] The IRS seems to already have specific rules around "qualified sponsorship payments". [1] [0] https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/tools-resources/corporate-sponsorship-income-taxable-or-charitable-contribution https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/tools-resources/corporat... [1] https://www.irs.gov/publications/p598/ch03.html#en_US_201701_publink100011928 https://www.irs.gov/publications/p598/ch03.html#en_US_201701...

guimarin 9y ago
One easy way around this is to do what all the NYC foundations do. That is, give to other people's charities, and they in turn will give to yours. That is only small potatoes compared to donating to a political campaign and taking the money you don't spend on the campaign off the table tax free. A lot more things make sense through that lens. I could imagine a situation where Google who doesn't benefit from every OSS project, gives to project that Facebook benefits from, and Facebook to one's that Google does ad infinitem.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

ocdtrekkie 9y ago

The problem is a lot of those "altruistic purposes" tend not to be so altruistic, when you look into why they do them. Take for example, when Google recently chose to donate a bunch of hardware to schools instead of giving their employees an annual gift. Google gifted schools Chromebooks, which seems like an incredible act of charity. Except for the fact that you have to pay a subscription to Google to use them. Which means they really just managed to get a tax write-off while picking up more customers. How do you ensure a company is doing something in the best interests of society or the charity or organization they are donating to, rather than in the best interests of themselves?

vostok 9y ago
> Google gifted schools Chromebooks, which seems like an incredible act of charity. Except for the fact that you have to pay a subscription to Google to use them. Do you happen to have a reference for this? G suite for education is free as far as I know and I wasn't able to find anything else that you might be referring to.
- tempaccount7827 9y ago
  Google doesn't need to charge to make a profit. Don't forget their primary business is advertising, so by getting more people to use their services, they gain. Also, by extending their reach to inside the schools, they effectively set up a way to "educate" kids to use their services.
- ocdtrekkie 9y ago
  Check out this page for a start on Chrome device licenses: https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/2717664?hl=en https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/2717664?hl=en You can see an educational portal listing the cost of the management license at $30 here, which isn't really a complete picture, but demonstrates that we aren't talking about something they give schools for free: https://edu.google.com/products/devices/ https://edu.google.com/products/devices/ Note that this is kinda of well-hidden, but that last link cites the "total cost of ownership" of a $149 Chromebook over three years as $588, which should give you an idea the difference between the hardware they give away, and the eventual cost of everything you need to deploy the suckers. Schools is definitely big money for Google, it's just well-disguised as an altruistic endeavor.