What happens when you donate to a charity at a store checkout?

Question

I’ve seen large corporations brag about donating large sums of money to charity.

Are donations collected at checkout (E.G Checking out at Publix and the cashier asks “Would you like to donate to cancer research?”) included in those sums?

Are donations collected used for tax benefits of the corporation?

In: Economics

Answer 1

Donations do not provide tax benefits to the store that collects the donations. The donation is a pass-thru. If, as some posts claim, the store gets the write-off (expense), they would also have to record the income (receipt of funds). One dollar in minus one dollar out equals zero. It’s basic accounting…

It’s a charitable effort at best and a PR stunt at worse.