I think you’re being given an incomplete picture here. It is a tax write off but it’s balanced out by the money they collect. So if they collect 100K in donations, they report that as “income” but it’s immediately written off as a charitable donation. Thus, they don’t directly get anything out of it as it’s functionally a net-zero transaction as far as their taxes are concerned. In fact, it probably ends up costing them a bit once you account for the hours spent by some admin or marketing team getting the program set up and administered.
Obviously they are getting something out of it: As others here have said, they get to brag about all the money they collected for charity. It’s possible these big corps also have some convoluted accounting practices that make this further advantageous but on the face of things that’s not how it works.
They do not record it as income, nor do they write it off on taxes. Those are your donations, they are merely a collector. You can claim those donations on your own taxes.
It largely is bragging rights, actually. Good PR is very valuable to a corp. And if the corp is running the charity it is also collecting donations to, then that’s double the good PR. For example, if they’re collecting donations for a charity that helps kids get involved in the arts, and they themselves run the charity, they can both say they raised a ton of money for charity and show the good work their charity has done.
This is good stuff, I want to stress. Charities are rarely for bad causes, though of course that can be slightly subjective and I encourage people to only support causes they believe in. But charity is being done, and the corp is not getting a tax write off, but rather good PR.
I suppose you may indeed be correct. I always assumed not as it’s not like they give you a donation receipt like when you directly donate to a charity. Now that I think of it, however, the donation itself would be itemized on the receipt and could therefore be used as proof in a personal audit. I just never really considered it as I just donate like 2 bucks here or there via this means.
I suppose this also might vary in different jurisdictions.
End of story, I’m willing to admit that I may have been misinformed (AKA wrong) myself.
I think you’re being given an incomplete picture here. It is a tax write off but it’s balanced out by the money they collect. So if they collect 100K in donations, they report that as “income” but it’s immediately written off as a charitable donation. Thus, they don’t directly get anything out of it as it’s functionally a net-zero transaction as far as their taxes are concerned. In fact, it probably ends up costing them a bit once you account for the hours spent by some admin or marketing team getting the program set up and administered.
Obviously they are getting something out of it: As others here have said, they get to brag about all the money they collected for charity. It’s possible these big corps also have some convoluted accounting practices that make this further advantageous but on the face of things that’s not how it works.
They do not record it as income, nor do they write it off on taxes. Those are your donations, they are merely a collector. You can claim those donations on your own taxes.
It happens, and is somewhat common. So in what way is the practice a benefit for the corp? I doubt it is just bragging rights?
It largely is bragging rights, actually. Good PR is very valuable to a corp. And if the corp is running the charity it is also collecting donations to, then that’s double the good PR. For example, if they’re collecting donations for a charity that helps kids get involved in the arts, and they themselves run the charity, they can both say they raised a ton of money for charity and show the good work their charity has done.
This is good stuff, I want to stress. Charities are rarely for bad causes, though of course that can be slightly subjective and I encourage people to only support causes they believe in. But charity is being done, and the corp is not getting a tax write off, but rather good PR.
Virtue signaling is the purpose. It convinces some people that they care. They don’t need to care, they just want to look like they do.
I suppose you may indeed be correct. I always assumed not as it’s not like they give you a donation receipt like when you directly donate to a charity. Now that I think of it, however, the donation itself would be itemized on the receipt and could therefore be used as proof in a personal audit. I just never really considered it as I just donate like 2 bucks here or there via this means.
I suppose this also might vary in different jurisdictions.
End of story, I’m willing to admit that I may have been misinformed (AKA wrong) myself.
You do get a donation receipt from them. If it’s not a separate receipt, then it will be on your purchase receipt.