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Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

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Re: Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

#41
post #11

Wait until they hear about what Bill Gates does these days.

People should research how the Bill Gates foundation has given nearly $400, million to media organizations, organizations that will never say a bad word about gates. The man is literally bribing media companies, but go ahead and believe that it’s Elon who is the evil one

Re: Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And can’t be clawed back in bankruptcy. Great way to preserve wealth

You're by definitions giving it away. It does nothing to preserve your own wealth even if it goes to a charity you control. It's no longer your wealth and unless you want to do something illegal its not coming back to you and can't benefit you.

I don’t really know but I’d guess there’s a way to close down charitable foundations and take the money back. Though presumably with a tax bill.

Re: Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

#44

A tax avoidance scheme which also placated a twitter argument about his contributions. Unsurprising.

Quoted post unavailable.

Yes good point. I do admire that he has given some of it to charity. But the bulk of the money he claimed to pledge didn't go to charity - it went to a foundation he controls, purely for tax benefit.

Off topic but it's funny you called me a kid. I've been around long enough to see this game played for decades by the wealthy class.

Re: Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

#45

Regular mortals maximize their 401k contributions, use Backdoor Roth IRA, FSA, optimize for long-term capital gains, etc. Is this all legal? Absolutely. The point is - nobody likes paying taxes - people try to minimize whatever it takes. Billionaires do the same. Instead of opening Flexible Spending Account, they start a charity. Instead of using Roth IRA loophole, they start off-shore corporations. Basically, they d…

They seem pretty good at getting their taxes down to zero, while us mere mortals have to be happy with deductions.

Re: Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

#46
post #40
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All true and a perfectly valid model. But also try: If I were incredibly wealthy and obsessed with running the score up, I’d see any taxes or other loss of wealth as a threat to my ego. If my tax accountants came to me and said I could have a greater net worth by founding a charity optimized for my personal benefit, I’d happily shuffle money there rather than paying taxes. I think that’s also a valid model. I don’t h…

I think he's probably optimizing for both. Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Por que no los dos?

Re: Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

#48
post #9

A tax avoidance scheme which also placated a twitter argument about his contributions. Unsurprising.

Every ultra-wealthy person has a charity for this purpose, right? Clintons, Bill Gates, etc...

Gates foundation actually does charitable work from what I can tell ?

Re: Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

#50
post #8

If I had money to donate I'd donate it to the charity I thought would be most effective at helping the cause I cared most about. If I had enough money to create my own charity it would be focused on the cause I cared most about. My giant ego and hubris would make it hard for me to come to the conclusion that a charity I created wasn't the most effective at its goals, even if that didn't happen to be the case.

Billionaire's 501(c)(3)s aren't charities in the typical sense. They're tax-exempt piles of money that are controlled exclusively by billionaire and their families (in this case Musk and his brother). The Musk Foundation in particular has donated less than 1% of the "charities" assets (most donations less than $500K, most years less than $1M) and these "charities" can pay out to their owners from tax-exempt gains on the back-end.

It is a super common tax avoidance scheme. It is legal. Pretending it has anything to do with good-cause charity isn't based in reality however.

PS - And to confuse matters further there are billionaires who are donating a lot to charity, like the Gates Foundation.

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