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

bloomberg.com

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

#111

Post by [deleted] »

Someone1234 wrote: post #50
c22 wrote: 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…

[deleted]

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

#113

Post by pupppet »

primitivesuave wrote: post #21

This reads like a hit piece, and a poorly executed attempt if so. This is standard practice and not uncommon. If we’re going to excoriate billionaires for putting their name on a foundation, shouldn’t Gates, DeVos, and others also be held to the same scrutiny? The article throws in an SBF comparison simply because both parties support the same brand of altruism.

> shouldn’t Gates, DeVos, and others also be held to the same scrutiny?

Did they try to keep it a secret?

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

#114

Post by ancapsfascists »

The material improvements he could have gotten for this money...

He could have created tens of thousands of homes in apartments and gifted them to municipalities to be social housing, putting a massive dent in homelessness.

He could have built and furnished schools. He could have bought public transit vehicles. There's countless things that would have real, immediate, material impact on thousands of lives.

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

#115

Post by blisterpeanuts »

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.

No post body was provided.

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

#116

Post by abruzzi »

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.

true, but it is possible to use it in ways that benefit you or your priorities. I'm not saying that is what Musk is doing, but the ability to spend a billion dollars or potentially charitable endeavours can have direct benefits to the giver.

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

#117

Post by sokoloff »

aisengard wrote: post #109
maerF0x0 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mere mortals are often paying 0 tax on their investments(ie deferred). Same as the ultra wealthy do. The issue is being a W2 wage slave, err i mean employee

Actually, mere mortals pay tax eventually when they cash out their investments to pay for the things they want. The wealthy get to take low-interest loans against their investments to pay for the things that they want, without ever having to cash out. They never have to pay those taxes, and their inheritors don't either due to the truly insane cost basis step-up benefit you get when assets are transferred to next of…

The cost basis step-up is not insane, IMO. It's partly practical ("how am I going to find out the date purchase and basis of some shares my grandfather bought in an account that was doing dividend reinvesting?!"), and partly to avoid unexpected outcomes ("grandpa gave the house to Alice and the rest of his estate to Bob"; if capital gains were due on the house, would Alice have to pay them or would Bob?).

IMO, the basis should be as of the date of death, with any taxes due owed from the estate, not the heirs.

(It's also fairly difficult to repeatedly exploit this as a loophole, as you have to die to take advantage of it. If we're looking to close loopholes, ones that can be repeatedly applied might be more fruitful places to start.)

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

#118

Post by pwinnski »

badrequest wrote: post #58
Someone1234 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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 Ah, so basically the exact same as every other billionaire family's charity.

Right, billionaire family charities are almost uniformly horrible, including this one.

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

#119

Post by aaronbrethorst »

mattrighetti wrote: post #67
c22 wrote: 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.

"Nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as he spends his own. Nobody uses somebody else’s resources as carefully as he uses his own."

We’re still talking about the guy who paid almost double what Twitter was worth right?

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

#120

Post by pwinnski »

c22 wrote: post #40
brookst wrote: 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.

Or both. One can certainly despise a particular player playing a horrible game.
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