Yeah, that's not how it works. The part that the Palin story leave out is the excise tax (courtesy of the intermediate sanctions provisions of the IRC) that Bri

Yeah, that's not how it works. The part that the Palin story leave out is the excise tax (courtesy of the intermediate sanctions provisions of the IRC) that Bristol Palin paid on the salary she received, in addition to the income taxes she paid on it. Also ignored is that the majority of the corruption in Bono's charity was siphoned off by government officials in the countries where the charity was intending to offer its services. Non-profits are not revovling doors for cash. The IRS rigorously audits charities that take in more than $50,000 in doanations in a year, and they are very zealous about levying hefty sanctions for abusive transactions. The scanrio you laid out would not qualify as a non-profit for many reasons, including the lack of public support, the lack of sufficient spending on exempt purposes, oh--and a big one--pervasive self-dealing.