Mildly Infuriating

This is not true. I am not from the US or a lawyer but these donations sould show up on your receipt and count as your direct donation to the charity. The store is just a middleman and does not get any benefit. Here is a random, semi recent article about it you can find a lot more if you look it up online.

They do not, at least in the US.

There are sites to check how much actually goes out. Check before you donate.

"But if we feed them then those broke homeless people won't come in and spend their (nonexistent) money on our food!" -upper management

Yes, which is why you should donate yourself if you are inclined to do so.

I think that's a myth as it isn't income it goes into a separate fund to transfer 1:1.

And redirecting you attention on to the "offsets" scam too.

Ever wonder why climate change is such a problem if 1.5 pence per liter petroleum burnt can undo the damage? Spoiler: it can't. You can't sequester CO² for that cheap, and CO² isn't the only issue. "Offsets" are not certified by any trustworthy third party, and companies intentionally don't pry too much, so they can say "Oh sorry, didn't know" if anyone investigates and discovers they did squat-all.

Nah the charities are usually legit. But the companies aren't doing it out of the goodness of their heart, it's a massive tax write off as well as free PR.

@zombuey I've heard that a lot, but it is apparently not true unless the company claims your donation as a profit and then writes it off, which negates any tax benefit. I think it's more just a PR thing to make you feel good about that company while using your own money.

No, that's not how it works. In order to do so, they'd have to first claim the money received as income.

That said, there are scummy things that they do. At the least, it's saying "we [bigcorp] donated $1,000,000 to charity" when in reality all that they did was collect it. In other situations, companies like Sobey's doesn't actually pass on food bank donations as cash, but rather have then as credit to buy products only from Sobey's.

That's not how tax write offs work. The only way to claim that money in a write-off would be for the business to also claim it as revenue. That would even out, with no tax savings. Businesses also don't handle donations that way, they usually serve as a collection agent that just passes your donations on without being able to claim it towards their revenue or their tax write offs. The only person who can write-off their donation is the person who actually made it.

The reason businesses do it is for marketing. They get to put out a press release saying "They helped donate $10 million to puppies without borders."

I can assure you that nobody working at the fast food restaurant gives a shit if you donate to charity.

Hard to believe this when our supermarket giants (Coles, Woolworths) are posting record billions in profits.

They aren't 'hard done by'. They make money hand over fist.

This is a lie that I had hoped to leave behind on Reddit but lo and behold it's so pervasive that it transcends social circles.

Repeat after me: that is not how taxes work.

They do not get any monetary benefit from your donations, save for arguably good publicity. They do not claim your donations in their taxes. They do not get extra write offs on their taxes.

Those donations are yours and you could claim them on your taxes, if you were so inclined.