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Elon Musk Has a Giant Charity. Its Money Stays Close to Home
- Havoc 3y agoUS charities seem to be anything but
- ugh123 3y agoall of them right? hmm
- chung8123 3y agoPeople who want to go after billionaires for taxes should be tackling non-profit charity donations. At this point I am not sure non-profits should get such liberal tax status and that includes churches, NGOs, and billionaire charities.
- bullfightonmars 3y agoNon-profits were always a tax dodge designed to provide tax shelters for the wealthy to influence society, democracy, education, etc.
- fragmede 3y agothere is that whole doing good that they're for. I know cynicism is easy to lean into, but let's not forget there is actually an element of good that some of them actually manage to do
- bullfightonmars 3y agoDoing good is not required to be a nonprofit.
- fragmede 3y agoIt’s not requisite, but the people working there want to do good for the world. It’s not like there’s a non profit out there who’s mission is to do evil.
- bastardoperator 3y agoI think we should be looking for irregularities and investigate based on known accounting practices regardless of entity. A Church that pays taxes is just a business, and maybe they are already, but I'm not interested in religious institutions gaining fixed government representation (beyond what already exists) or becoming a theocracy.
- dragonwriter 3y ago> People who want to go after billionaires for taxes should be tackling non-profit charity donations. Really, they should be tackling capital income. But it wouldn’t hurt to also tackle charity donations.
- chung8123 3y agoThis is going after capital income. This is a major write off that is used to bypass taxes on capital gains and income.
- dllthomas 3y agoI believe what was intended by "tackling capital income" is reducing the favorable treatment of income derived from capital relative to income derived from labor.
- chung8123 3y agoI agree but it doesn't matter either way if donations are a tax write off. In some cases these are write offs with no personal benefit but in some they are just shifting the money to a place where the user still has complete control. I am ok with throwing the baby out with the bath water here. I want churches, billionaires, school endowments, and everyone else to pay taxes like everyone else.
- 6510 3y agoIt's simple, their taxes should go towards the same stuff everyone else's goes to. I also donate to charity, after I pay taxes. It is hard to find a good one. The me myself and I memorial foundation doesn't serve anyone. The only thing the con got going for it self is a demonstration of government corruption.
- aml702 3y ago[dead]
- binarymax 3y agoIf there’s a legal way for a billionaire to avoid paying tax, of course they’re going to do it. The problem is how can you protect honest charities and prevent these shenanigans?
- piotrkaminski 3y agoI'm no billionaire, but if there's a legal way for me to avoid paying a tax, of course I'm going to do it. Why should billionaires be held to a different standard? Tighten up the laws for everyone instead.
- ants_everywhere 3y agoIt's easier for billionaires to bribe politicians to write the tax laws in their favor. So rectifying that means, among other things, being aware of ways in which billionaires can hide their taxes that aren't available to ordinary people.
- jkmcf 3y agoThe problem is how can you protect honest charities and prevent these shenanigans? Taxes and penalties if the money isn't being used for philanthropic activities? And not just being moved around to other shelters/friends/etc...
- acdha 3y agoI think that would very quickly become a rat’s nest of proving that something isn’t truly philanthropic. It seems a lot easier to say gifts aren’t tax deductible and raise taxes enough that important social services aren’t expected to be funded by largesse.
- edncy33 3y agoI dont think anything can be done about billionaires. I mean Pareto wrote his Circulation of Elites 100 years ago. No one has been able to present a different mpdel that doesnt collapse. Failure of Wikileaks/Arab Spring/no one being held responsible for 2008 gfc/endless wars all are evidence Pareto was right. Lot of energy is being wasted on a mathematical imposability. There are no ecosystems where Nature has got rid off Predators.
- try_the_bass 3y agoGiven the paywall, I can't read the article, but a post on Twitter[1] appeared in my newsfeed as related coverage. Perhaps it's been updated to take this into account? [1] https://twitter.com/hackclub/status/1766937503691428007 https://twitter.com/hackclub/status/1766937503691428007
- acdha 3y agoHere’s a gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/10/us/elon-musk-charity.html?unlocked_article_code=1.cE0.fuiu.YDA6HD43aXGL&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/10/us/elon-musk-charity.html...
- try_the_bass 3y agoThanks! I appreciate the link
- js2 3y agoGift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/10/us/elon-musk-charity.html?unlocked_article_code=1.cE0.YBw2.T2JP95CQDQfu&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/10/us/elon-musk-charity.html...
- ryandrake 3y agoI once worked for a fairly high-net worth individual, and of course he had a charitable "foundation". I couldn't tell what the foundation did besides "own his assets". It certainly seemed like something set up to avoid taxes, but I didn't really get into his business so who knows. Apparently everyone with that much money has a "charitable foundation", or so I'm told. > But unlike Bill Gates, who has deployed his fortune in an effort to improve health care across Africa, or Walmart’s Walton family, which has spurred change in the American education system, Musk’s philanthropy has been largely self-serving — making him eligible for enormous tax breaks and helping his businesses. This seems to be one of the pitfalls of setting up our society such that philanthropy funds the public good as opposed to taxes and government: You're at the mercy of the morality of individual rich people. You can get lucky and have Bill Gates steering the money, providing infectious disease research. You can get unlucky and have guys like Musk aiming the money funnel at themselves. You can also get really unlucky and have a not so wholesome "philanthropist" who donates their billions to a terrible or deadly cause, like a group bent on hate, discrimination, erasing people's rights, ethnic cleansing or some other evil. And we, as citizens, have no say in the matter because "how can you tell someone how to spend their hard earned money?"
- malux85 3y agoIf a billionaire avoids taxes by giving the money to charity, in a “net gain, net loss” kind of way, doesn’t that mean the public tax-payers are effectively paying the charity? I.e. by missing out on the tax the government would have collected. So then if the billionaire owns the charity and they are holding the money as assets on the balance sheet, then the public has effectively paid the billionaire right?
- ryandrake 3y ago> If a billionaire avoids taxes by giving the money to charity, in a “net gain, net loss” kind of way, doesn’t that mean the public tax-payers are effectively paying the charity? I.e. by missing out on the tax the government would have collected. Yea, as usual, the public gets the worst of both worlds: They partially pay for the charity (through loss of tax revenue) and also have no control over what the charity funds.
- greenyoda 3y agohttps://archive.ph/zImcJ https://archive.ph/zImcJ
- js2 3y agoGift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/10/us/elon-musk-charity.html?unlocked_article_code=1.cE0.YBw2.T2JP95CQDQfu&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/10/us/elon-musk-charity.html...
- kalaido 3y agoReally guys? He paid more tax than any individual ever last year.
- archagon 3y agoHe also has way more money than almost any other individual. Did he pay in proportion to his wealth?
- s1artibartfast 3y agoThere is a lot of FUD in this article, Which ignores how charities and foundations actually work. It mentions that they are required by law to give away 5%, but then ignores the rest of the laws, which are quite reasonable. >However, a foundation may set aside funds for up to 60 months for certain major projects. Excess qualifying distributions may be carried forward for a period of five tax years immediately following the tax year in which the excess was created. https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/private-foundations/taxes-on-failure-to-distribute-income-private-foundations https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/private-foundation...
- cosmin800 3y agoHow is this news? Foundation setup is one the abcs of rich people. Every rich person has one or more. Seems just a lame attack to mr. Musk.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]