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Comment by berdon | Hacker News Reader

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berdon·

Has anyone else noticed the rise in retail companies asking "Would you like to round up for XYZ charity"?

Am I pessimistic in thinking they're taking this money and donating it purely for free tax reduction?

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Please explain to me how getting $1 and immediately donating it produces more than that $1 in tax reduction.

It isn't about reducing taxes, it's about getting some sort of altruistic branding/advertising at little to no cost.

It still actually costs the company money in customer throughput, signage, implementation, bookkeeping, etc...

where do you get the claim $1 produces more than $1 in tax reduction? every company looks to lower their tax liabilities. if they make charitable donations, they can use that as a deduction towards that goal. so they can not do the donations and loose out on a deduction, or they can do it without affecting their profits from sales because customers are giving them extra for the purpose.

I don't know - that's why I was asking if this was the case.

No, they don't. If you give money to charity at checkout you can claim it on YOUR taxes. Period. No ifs ands or buts.

at the end of the day, if the charity is actually receiving the money that the company claims they are giving, does it really matter the ultimate reason for the company's decision to give the money?

The individual loses the tax deductions themselves.

yeah, those "round up" donations are not going to qualify for much of a deduction, but the company collecting the round up from all of the donations will add up. if an individual wants to donate up to $0.99 (assuming rounding to whole dollar not nearest $5 or something) it's just chump change on an individual level. not really sure why you're so upset about this

Did my comment come across as "upset"? I pointedly asked if I was being pessimistic.

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