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How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

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Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#231

Post by PrimeMcFly »

mistermann wrote: post #156
realityking wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don‘t think those two statements are at odds at all. Consider that the Jan 6th insurrections were trying to keep the then current president, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, in power. That‘s about as far from a citizen‘s only revolution as it could be.

FFS, change the intent . What is it about this topic that renders people unable to think rationally? Imagine if software was written with this quality of thinking.

> Imagine if software was written with this quality of thinking.

Windows 95 startup music plays

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#232

Post by JacobAldridge »

nobodyandproud wrote: post #170
JacobAldridge wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What if all corporate accountants were required to be government employees? So then what if a company is seeking to expand internationally, and looking at options for various reasons (including costs, which includes the tax burden). Isn’t it a conflict of interest to have a US government employee weighing in on how to improve a company at the loss of IRS revenue? And that’s an extreme example. Any company accountan…

Isn’t that the task of tax attorneys? Different line of work, though same domain of concern.

Depending on the size of the company, you’d probably need a team; but there aren’t too many companies with a tax attorney on the staff so the accounting team would be doing the heavy lifting.

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#233

Post by jhp123 »

00ff wrote: post #124

Most commenters here seem to have a false impression of the distribution of taxation. "The rich pay little taxes" is disinfo. The truth is more like "the rich pay most of the taxes." The US has had progressive taxation since 1913. Today, taxes on the top 1% of earners comprise 40% of federal income tax revenue, top 5% comprise 60%, while the bottom 50% comprise 2% (however note income taxes are only half of federal r…

"the rich" and "top income earners" are not at all the same group. Many of the richest people make their money through untaxed capital gains.

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#234

Post by tacticalturtle »

AlbertCory wrote: post #223
tacticalturtle wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couple points I thought of: “how do you know they're "qualified"?” Interviews? Resumes? References? Same as any job in the market today? “I don't know how you could know "it's very likely the people in those roles could make multiples more at private organizations.” They’re providing free legal services to the homeless. I’m assuming they’ve hired lawyers. Looks like average total pay for a lawyer is 150k in SF? https…

I've done my research here. Now it's your turn. These people's names are all on the Charity Navigator pages I referenced. Try them on LinkedIn & other online sites. Tell us what their qualifications are, what other jobs they've held, and where they live. For bonus points: what political causes do they contribute to? Civil Service laws prohibit forcing employees to make political contributions, but those laws don't ap…

Of those 5 for Tenderloin, I see two attorneys, a general director and founder who created the clinic in the 80’s, a director of finance with 10 years of experience as an auditor prior to holding the position for 20 years.

I don’t live anywhere near San Francisco, and those salaries seem entirely reasonable for being at the top of an organization that’s responsible for 1900 housing units, in tax year 2022.

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#235

Post by dools »

rcme wrote: post #192
tommiegannert wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The big difference is that I can choose not to pay a company I don't like, and that's fine. Governments will happily make my life crap if I don't pay taxes. I dislike greed as much as the next person, but the monopolized incarceration powers of governments are not to be forgotten. For some services, collective funding makes sense, like having hospitals that can stop the spread of diseases, or forcing pooling of money…

It’s ironic that you’re complaining that you can’t avoid paying the government when the only reason you can pay for anything at all is because the government uses its monopoly on violence to protect your property rights. Paying the government is the price of participating in commerce at all.

And is the monopoly issuer of currency used to make those payments

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#236

Post by nobodyandproud »

JacobAldridge wrote: post #232
nobodyandproud wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t that the task of tax attorneys? Different line of work, though same domain of concern.

Depending on the size of the company, you’d probably need a team; but there aren’t too many companies with a tax attorney on the staff so the accounting team would be doing the heavy lifting.

Large and multinational companies (your extreme example) don’t suffer from this problem; nor do medium sized ones.

Many of the smaller businesses rely on dodge—by-cash or function just fine.

In fact, the audit problems caused by tiny, front/fake LLCs and paper companies lead to a real, criminal-level audit trail problem.

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#237

Post by gruez »

stephenhuey wrote: post #229
gruez wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>- Give them sweet jobs in your foundation. Pay them competitive salaries without going through a competitive candidate search. Continue this even after you die, essentially a tax-free annuity. It's not "tax free" when those salaries are taxed just like any other salary.

Because you donated huge sums to your nonprofit, it reduced your tax burden by a significantly high amount, and that is probably a higher amount than what your friends and relatives will pay in taxes on their paychecks in your foundation, so you were able to keep more dollars from going to Uncle Sam and among your circle of loved ones instead.

>Because you donated huge sums to your nonprofit, it reduced your tax burden by a significantly high amount

You know what also reduces your tax burden by a significant amount? Not taking the money out of your business and putting your friends/relatives on the payroll. That it also doesn't get taxed because it's a business expense. I'm not sure what the point of going through the charity is.

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#238

Post by dredmorbius »

almost_usual wrote: post #126
seanp2k2 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly this is the type of bounty hunting that seems quite likely to get a bounty placed on one’s own head. Making a career out of angering the rich and powerful by going after their money isn’t likely to end well.

You’ve got it backwards, the rich should fear the masses. There’s a reason Leland Stanford moved to Palo Alto.

What's that reason, for those presently unenlightened?

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#239

Post by Guvante »

wskinner wrote: post #212
mihaic wrote: post #199

Honestly, why isn't there a general indignation against the concept of tax breaks for any charitable contribution? I'm generally not aligned with the libertarians, but let's just lower taxes and simply let people give wherever they want. The only real benefits that non-profit structures like a 501(c) should be that their donations aren't taxed as income, and that's it.

In America, there is broad implicit approval for the idea that the tax code should be used to encourage (discourage) desirable (undesirable) behavior. We may quibble about the definition of desirability, but most Americans do seem to support this.

Tax breaks for donations only impact these kinds of schemes.

The majority of donations aren't conditioned on a tax write off from what research has been done.

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#240

Post by Guvante »

jmyeet wrote: post #24

Private foundations are really a massive scam on the public purse so whenever you hear about the Gates Foundation and the like, remember it's just a tax dodge, nothing more. The way the rules work, a private foundation has to spend 5% of its capital on its intended purpose. Thing is, that 5% can include "administration" costs like paying salaries and benefits for the family. They really need to raise this to 10%, min…

You can't donate money to dodge taxes.

You need to donate a good and have it be overvalued or maintain control over it.

Gates mostly donated shares who have a fair value (market value). Gates similarly has control over direction but isn't using the majority of the funds for self enrichment.

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