What do you think about someone that takes a charitable deduction for money given to their son's business?
It's an indirect way to keep their son employeed - by helping his business stay afloat by giving him revenue from their charity donation that goes to him. Apparently he (Neil) is not welcomed in Sand Hill Road due to his unusual business ethics so I think his Mom is doing his fishing for him. (If I asked my Dad to "help" me out like that, he would tell me to "go learn to fish" and develop my skillsets on my own, and he'd also correctly say "that type of help wouldn't be helping you, it would hurt you.")
Message 22292750
( Please ignore his political comment at the top of the post, and only focus on the technicality of the transaction - do you think this deduction transaction is legal? )
Am of the impression a charitable donation cannot directly benefit a family member in order for it to pass the deductible test. For example, you cannot deduct $200k that you give to your daughter in one calendar year.
Another example is, for a charitable trust to be deductible, the IRS requires you to have no influence on how the charitable trust account is managed ("arms length away") in order to avoid the situation where you influence the investments towards something you own, indirectly own, or directly benefit from its influence.
I know corporate hightech boards only permit product donations from the company itself (i.e. the company uses its own money), and doesn't permit third party donations for its own productware - in other words, the donation has to come directly from the company.
Regarding your other post, why would a company have a relative on payroll if they aren't doing something? Aside from the obvious ethics issue, when you hire someone don't your costs go up, not down?
Regards,
Amy J |
