Elon Musk's $5.7B donation sparks questions about giving

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Leave it to Elon Musk to stir up controversy without saying — or tweeting — a word.

In November, according to a regulatory filling, the Tesla CEO donated to charity about 5 million shares of company stock, worth $5.7 billion. Since the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission was made public Monday, Tesla hasn't responded to a request for comment. Nor has Musk mentioned the donation on Twitter, his favorite communications forum.

Yet that hasn't quelled debates in and out of philanthropy, about transparency, tax deductions and congressional legislation, along with speculation about where exactly the money was donated. Some experts say Musk likely donated his shares to his donor-advised fund, or DAF for short. DAFs are essentially charitable investment accounts in which donors can claim a tax deduction upfront but aren’t legally required to distribute the money.

Experts say that would be the most advantageous strategy for Musk, currently the world's richest man with an approximate net worth of more than $220 billion. A DAF donation would allow him to claim a tax deduction of as much as 30% of his 2021 adjusted gross income, instead of 20% if he had donated it instead to his foundation. Musk could also deduct the fair market value of the stock, instead of its original value.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/elon-musks-dollar57b-donation-sparks-questions-about-giving/ar-AAU30LV

Sounds like the laws need to be updated.

[jimfields33]

1. Perfect time to change the laws with majority in both houses and

Presidency. I hope they do it.

[WarGamer]

7. Have to get it past Manchin and Sinema first...

[jimfields33]

14. Hopefully the leaders can do just that.

[Hoyt]

2. Doesn't sound like a bad thing. It encourages wealthy people to

donate to approved charities.

Musk is still out billions after the charitable deductions, although he ain’t gonna miss it. The charities are better off and he can’t get the donations back.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

3. Not against wealthy donating to charities but it's the following line that bothers me,

DAFs are essentially charitable investment accounts in which donors can claim a tax deduction upfront but aren’t legally required to distribute the money.

I mean WTF?

[Hoyt]

6. Once he puts the money in, he can't get to it except to donate

to charities. Don’t think it is as nefarious as some think.

Here’s where Forbes thinks the money is going:

“When the filing first hit, some speculated that Musk—the world’s richest person—had made a massive gift to the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP). The timing tracks: A month prior to the November share transfer, Musk tweeted that he’d donate $6 billion to the WFP—if the organization could describe “exactly how $6B will solve world hunger.” (Some surmised that Musk, who has a long history of tweeting flippantly, was simply trolling.) But the WFP has not received such a gift, it told Forbes on Tuesday. “Whether WFP receives any of this money is yet to be seen, but I am excited to hear that Elon is engaged,” said the organization's Executive Director David Beasley in a statement. No other charities have announced gifts yet, either, and Musk did not respond to multiple requests for comment.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/elizahaverstock/2022/02/15/elon-musk-reports-donating-57-billion-to-charity-but-there-is-no-trace-of-that-gift-yet/?sh=62cbcc462782

Musk is still out several billion even after impact of tax deductions.

[lostnfound]

15. He is protecting stock value and preserving power. naive to assume actual charities.

He had a huge tax bill coming. To pay it, he would sell stock, and recognize gains on that stock, which would cause him to have more gains, which would require him to sell more stock to cover those gains.
Not only is that a compounding effect on his own net worth, but it’s a negative effect on stock value.

Donor-advised funds can remain idle as stock for years. He can decide later that he wants the DAF money to be given to causes that are more political in nature (Donor’s Trust for example is a huge right wing political “charity” self-described as “conservative public policy agenda in the areas of labor unions, climate science, public schools, and economic regulations”) or perhaps make the decisions about where the money goes wheats from now when it benefits him to do so. I’m remembering Barbara Bush donating millions to charity in the state of Florida for education when t Florida was buying the same millions worth of educational software (Ignite) from her son’s company.

Similar benefits do not exist for ordinary people even if they donate the same percentage of their wealth, for numerous reasons. Instead, the little people pay their taxes.

[lostnfound]

16. Interesting Forbes article on his charity record and also speculating about donor-advised fund

https://www.forbes.com/sites/elizahaverstock/2022/02/15/elon-musk-reports-donating-57-billion-to-charity-but-there-is-no-trace-of-that-gift-yet/

His own foundation $20 M, Wikipedia $1 M, Mercato Center George Mason university $1 M, smaller amounts to Hack Club and a fire department.

[Zeitghost]

4. So your take is

to discourage charitable giving?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

5. Oh please

Read the thread above you. I don't need to repeat myself.

[Zeitghost]

8. Musk gave billions to charity

I don't see that as a problem.

Tax deductions encourage charitable giving, I also don't see a problem with that.


I'm trying to find the problem here.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

9. So long as it actually makes it to those who need it.

If it's nothing more than a a place to park one's money it's not really a charity.

[Zeitghost]

10. He gave the money away

It's no longer his, he can not use it for himself or profit from it in any way. It must all be distributed to charitable organizations. Again, I don't see a problem with that and I'm not sure why you would either. It's 5 billion going to good causes. That's a plus for society.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

11. I don't need to play your childish game

Ignored.

[Zeitghost]

12. It's not a game

It's the truth. I'm sorry you have a problem with it.

Elon gave 5 billion to a DFT, an investment account that will grow and must eventually be distributed through grants to charitable organizations. Why is that a bad thing?

[Hoyt]

13. Not a game. It's gone, he can't get it back.

He’d have a lot more control in his foundation.

[USALiberal]

18. Lol, nice try! Nt

[48656c6c6f20]

17. The fact that looney tunes

Has kept quiet about it says volumes to me. He has an asshole quotient of the Great Orange Annulus of Magat-a-LargeAss and if this was a good thing would be yapping on Twitter.

[USALiberal]

20. Lol, ok!! Nt

[USALiberal]

19. Lol, he is evil if he does not donate or if he does!!! Nt

[48656c6c6f20]

21. No just a

Looney tunes megalomaniac that rivals the Great Orange Annulus of Magat-a-LargeAss. If this was a legit straight to people needing it he would be proclaiming how he is the the best philanthropist in the universe.
I don't maybe his son áð*łé=ß can shed more light on it.

[USALiberal]

22. Wonder why NASA is paying him so much money??? Nt

[48656c6c6f20]

24. There is no asshole discrimination

So NASA is free to pay any asshole attention I guess..

[KY_EnviroGuy]

23. Same issue here as with the wealthy's undue influence in politics.

There is no question of the wealthy giving to political organizations and campaigns and stuffing politician's hip pockets with cash to gain undue influence the public cannot achieve with our paltry contributions. A millionaire can thereby have hundreds times the influence on my representative's decisions than I, by using money that ultimately came from me through purchase of goods and services.

It's the raw abuse of human psychology by taking advantage of our feeling obligated to repay things given to us. Therefore, money equals power whether we're discussing a charity or a political campaign or think tank funding.

People like Musk don't give huge sums of money out of the goodness from their hearts, but rather to influence public and investor opinions and decisions in their favor.....and to gain tax breaks which in turn comes out of our pockets in the form of higher taxes. It's also known they give to charities, scholarship funds, churches and universities to gain a foot in the door with those organization's policy decisions.

If corporations like Tesla and Microsoft truly wanted to do the right thing for humanity, they would charge less for their products and services and take much more modest profits, thereby giving the public more funds to apply to charity and politics. Additionally, any contributions they do make would be anonymous, in true humanist fashion.

I also see the common abuse of the word "worth" in the cited article. Elon Musk has no more real big-picture worth than you or I. The appropriate phrase would be "a man with control over more than $220 billion in assets". Unfortunately, the financial industry's calculation of worth does not include negative factors such as impact on human rights, human asset inequality and damage to the earth's environment.

KY Saturday rant done.......

Thanks for posting this, YMBL.......