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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It’s not possible, and any confusion you have is because you understand if perfectly, and so many other people don’t.
If you give money to charity, you will end up with less money than you had. You can’t make a profit by giving to charity (unless you lie about the value of the stuff you gave).
(This is in the US, by the way. In the UK charitable giving works slightly differently, but the effect is the same).
You give $100 to charity. The government, at the end of the year, gives you some back. Maybe $25, depending on lots of factors. They don’t give you back the whole $100. They definitely don’t give to back more than the $100.
So you’re only really out $75, while the charity effectively gets $25 from the government. It’s a pretty nice system. We are encouraged to give to charity, the government gives to charity, and it basically uses our giving as a popularity contest to figure out where to give. But there is no way at all that you will end up with more money than you started with.
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