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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

#141

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #115
jasonlfunk wrote: post #96

Instead of giving directly to charities like St. Judes - he funds his foundation which gives to charities like St. Judes. When you give away $5B, wouldn't it be irresponsible to not give it to a foundation? And if you have your own foundation, wouldn't it be dumb to not give it to your own foundation? This seems like a nothing story; except that it's in vogue to hate Musk right now.

Quoted post unavailable.

I saw a comment that was without irony posting how Musk is the new Trump. And I think there is so much truth to that it’s painful, but not in the way some people may think.

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

#142

Post by yamtaddle »

ceejayoz wrote: post #23
beckingz wrote: post #7

The classic billionaire tax move. Donate money to your own foundation to work on things you want while getting a big tax break.

Donating $5.7B to save an absolute max (37% tax bracket; he's probably much lower with most income via capital gains) of about $2.1B in taxes doesn't make financial sense, unless you've got a plan to siphon off at least $3.6B tax-free out of the charity. Why do people think a $1B donation saves $1B in tax?

> Why do people think a $1B donation saves $1B in tax?

A distressingly large slice of eligible voters don't even understand how marginal tax rates work. Which is, like, the absolute minimum to have any clue whatsoever how US income taxes are applied, what tax bills will actually do if they become law, and so on. I'd be surprised if understanding of how deductions work is any more widespread.

[EDIT] Not a great source, but it's in-line with the results I've seen from better ones in the past:

https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/20...

Roughly half don't understand how marginal tax rates work.

Can't find data on how many US adults understand how deductions work, but I doubt it's better.

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

#143

Post by wsc981 »

moonchrome wrote: post #48
wsc981 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ?

Invests in vaccine companies (Bill Gates stating it was his most profitable investment ever) & major funder for WHO (who’ve been pushing COVID vaccines).

Might be a conflict of interest here.

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

#144

Post by progrus »

thinkmcfly wrote: post #101
progrus wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk derangement syndrome is now an epidemic.

An epidemic you say? We should do nothing about it then. I'm healthy, it won't hurt me. There was a poll that showed that people worried about Elon syndrome epidemic are actually the most likely responders to be biased in their decision making. I'll post a link to it when I get out of the shower

A lot of people sound worried about all this, and I’m not one of them. This meltdown is great news.

Twitter is still working. The next drop of files will probably start another scandal about COVID censorship.

I wonder how many folks all over the world are looking at this and thinking “we could probably fire most of our government”?

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

#145

Post by [deleted] »

jasonlfunk wrote: post #96

Instead of giving directly to charities like St. Judes - he funds his foundation which gives to charities like St. Judes. When you give away $5B, wouldn't it be irresponsible to not give it to a foundation? And if you have your own foundation, wouldn't it be dumb to not give it to your own foundation? This seems like a nothing story; except that it's in vogue to hate Musk right now.

[deleted]

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

#146

Post by rocket_surgeron »

codeulike wrote: post #39

So in the same way that Bill Gates donates to his own foundation? https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/13/bill-gates-donates-20-billio...

No, not at all in the same way.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation actually spends its money on charitable programs.

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/562...

The Musk Foundation spends very little (~2%) of its assets on charity.

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/770...

Musk's "charity" is a tax-dodge coupled with an influence and access-buying scheme.

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

#147

Post by wsc981 »

moonchrome wrote: post #48
wsc981 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ?

PS: most foundations are probably required by law to do a little bit of actual charitable work, but I believe these foundations are mainly tax exempt investment vehicles and a way to peddle influence with governments.

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

#148

Post by mirzap »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #75
brookst wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let’s say I make $100 at an effective income tax rate of 35%. I pay $35 in taxes and keep $65. Now say I make the same $100 but I give $20 to a qualifying nonprofit. I have $80 left, on which I pay 35% ($28), leaving me with $52. I have $13 less than I would have without the contribution. But if I own the nonprofit, funds under my control go from $65 to $72.

The important distinction is that you cant spend those non-profit funds the same way you could cash in your pocket. It is under your control, but you can't use it to buy a Hawaiian island vacation home.

Exactly. It's more about control, where the money goes and how it is spent. It's not their money anymore and can't spent it as they wish. Rich people are obsessed with that (and I don't blame them. I wish rest of the world is concerned more to where their tax dollars or charity they give go). Huge percentage of charity money is spent on corrupt activities, bribe etc. People who give more tend to care more about where the money goes.

I know for my self, I don't really care when I donate 1-2 $/eur. I don't think that in "value" terms because amount is so small and often I don't question too much (or investigate) where the money goes. But if I donate $500 then I try to gather as much information as I can about the organization, people involved, previous projects etc. I can imagine this feeling (having control) would only be amplified if I tried to donate millions of dollars.

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

#149

Post by makeitdouble »

twodave wrote: post #106
beckingz wrote: post #7

The classic billionaire tax move. Donate money to your own foundation to work on things you want while getting a big tax break.

I'm not sure I see the big problem here. Our government has decided that if you want to dedicate your resources to an approved cause that it won't hinder that cause by taxing those contributed resources. We don't place limitations on who is allowed to run a charity, and the range of valid exempt purposes[0] leaves a lot of potential for those resources to be used. Just because someone is a billionaire or not shouldn'…

Parent's point is probably that their government should change opinion on the matter and tax contributions to your own organizations.

Musk's behavior being currently legal or incentifized is kinda beyond the point.

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

#150

Post by uplifter »

Is calling it a charity accurate? It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, but not the “public charity” subtype, rather it is the “private foundation” type[0].

[0] https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/musk-foundation/#

[1]Types of 501(c)(3) orgs: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/starting-a-business/understa...

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