How is it possible to give to charity “for the tax write offs”? I see that you don’t pay 30~40% tax on the amount you donated, but you no longer have 100% of the amount so surely you’re worse off.
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Well, for starters, people tend to think a lot more highly of you if you give a bunch of money to charity. So, that money doesn’t just disappear. And, there can be other indirect benefits. If you like the opera, helping to keep the opera open with donations is a lot cheaper than buying lots of opera tickets, thanks to the write-off. Maybe you’ll even get your name put on a building. ~~For big companies, this benefit mainly comes in the form of cheap advertising~~. *(Not correct… just regular-cost advertising with some warm fuzzies baked in.)* Basically, it’s a 30-40% discount on money you were already going to spend, anyway.
Also, corruption: People like… I don’t know… “Ronald Grump” and “Felon Husk” run corrupt charities that often just give the money back to them or their families. Running a charity could be an easy way for your Cousin Ed to have a 6-figure job doing basically nothing, you know?
“Fine Art” is big one. You buy a sh*tty painting for $10,000. Then, the painting *magically* goes up in value to $15,000,000. You graciously donate the painting to a museum. Ta-Da!
I’m sure there are other strategic tricks I’m not aware of, too.
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