The "kick back" is good PR.

The kickback is also in saying that they donated the money to charity .... which was collected from other people

It's like I asked you to donate money to a charity and I said I had to be the one to collect it .... then I take your money and donate it in my name ... basically, I took your generosity and claimed it as my own.

In many cases company's also understand that they can't openly do this because it would be too obvious ... instead they just ride the generosity gravy train ... they encourage people to donate to charities through their store/company/business ... then the company may or may not give their own contributions but they get to attach their name to the donated amounts.

It's like a billionaire selling you a can a beans and then asking you to donate a penny to a charity .... I always say no because the idiot billionaire could spare 1% of their wealth and give millions of dollars to charities everywhere, why the hell are you asking me?

I never give to charities through a store/company or business ... I give directly to charities on my own.

It's a marketing thing. Stuff like this creates the illusion that they're good corporate citizens.

Of course, they could donate a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of their own profits and make a much bigger impact, but that would set a bad precedent! Giving away your money is only for the working class!

Also the political/social influence is real. Why bribe the government when you can outsource it to you and say it’s for a good cause. But the reality of the situation is they are giving a politician what they want and if the politician do something they don’t like they can move that “donation” to someone else.

They do get a whole lot of advertising, social capital, and influnce over which causes get proped up, on the back of donating customers

Sure, but that's not a tax write-off as originally said. Stick to the things that are actually things.

while you're out a few bucks that you could have pooled for a single charity and gotten a tax receipt of your own for

If your donations for the year exceed the standard deduction (hint: the standard deduction is about $15k. Most people take that instead of itemizing). Doesn't have to be one single donation, and if your receipt shows the donation (it should) and it's for a legitimate charity I don't see why you couldn't use that to deduct that donation if you itemize.

this! the megacorporation receives 500k donations, which they transfer to CEO's son's "charity" that spends 99% of it on the said son's salary. he buys another ferrari and the charity sends some flowers to a children cancer hospital.

Oh man don't even get me started on that one too. I knew some people that genuinely thought a bonus would make them earn less overall.

So, there are some misconceptions about this on both sides. While some may misunderstand how tax brackets work, there absolutely are certain income thresholds where barely going over a certain amount will net you less money overall.

Edit: To clarify, you should accept the raise. In most cases all you need to do to avoid "losing money" at any of these points is to lower your AGI by contributing to an IRA, 401K, etc.

For example (using 2025 numbers here for a single filer):

• EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) @~$50k (if you have 1 kid) you miss out on a $4k tax credit. So there's no point to getting a raise that puts you between $50k and $54k (don't actually reject the raise, just make sure you lower your income by contributing to an IRA or something like that). https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/can-you-take-earned-income-tax-credit

• IRA Deductions @ $79k you start to lose out on IRA deduction benefits https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/what-is-a-traditional-ira

• Medicare Premium Increase (for those on medicare)
  @ $106k your medicare tax increases by $888, so you don't want a raise that puts you between $106k and $~107k
  @ $133k medicare tax increases by $1.3k, so you don't want a raise between $133k and $134k
  @ $167k medicare tax increases by $1.3k again
  @ $200k medicare tax increases by $1.3k again
  @ $500k medicare tax increases by $444... https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/insurance/medicare/what-is-the-medicare-irmaa

• Roth IRA @ $150k you start to lose out on benefits from having a Roth IRA @ $165k you can no longer contribute to a Roth IRA, so if you're close to this limit, you're going to do what you can to stay under this income bracket as much as possible (contribute to an HSA, 401k, IRA, etc). https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/roth-ira-contribution-limits

• Child Tax Credit @ $200k you don't get as much of a child tax credit, but luckily this drops off fairly slowly at a rate of $50 per $1k that you exceed that $200k limit. https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/qualify-child-child-care-tax-credit

There are probably a few other taxes/credits I didn't include, but this is just a quick example with what I could look up at the moment.

Oh shoot.....I missed it. I DVR'd the election results, and never got around to watching it. Don't tell me! No spoilers! I want to see if it we finally elect our first black president. It's Obama vs McCain.

.........also, I've been in a coma for a while. 2024, huh? Do we have flying cars yet?