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   Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 01-Dec-2025 14:03:19 JST Rich Felker

   • Hrefna (DHC)

   @hrefna AIUI often they already have made a promise to donate some amount, and they're using your money to satisfy that promise. Same scam as tips at lots of businesses.

   • Embed this notice
     Hrefna (DHC) (hrefna@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 01-Dec-2025 14:09:11 JST Hrefna (DHC)

     in reply to

     @dalias that is incorrect, that would be tax fraud.

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     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 01-Dec-2025 14:24:57 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     • Hrefna (DHC)

     @hrefna And? I don't see "that would be tax fraud" as evidence that businesses aren't doing something. Fraud is the norm in the contemporary US. If this is false and in need of debunking, that calls for real investigative reporting, not reasoning about their legal risk.

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     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 01-Dec-2025 14:28:13 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     • Hrefna (DHC)

     @hrefna In any case, AIUI, they have to account for this money as a donation by them, or they'd be stuck paying taxes on it even though they don't get to keep it, because it's income on register transactions that they don't have any other way to exclude.

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     Hrefna (DHC) (hrefna@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 01-Dec-2025 14:58:07 JST Hrefna (DHC)

     in reply to

     @dalias This is a different point than the one you made before about them having already promised to donate some amount.

     Anyways: https://taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/who-gets-tax-benefit-those-checkout-donations-0

     If they are looking to launder money and commit a tax fraud there are far, far more efficient ways to do it.

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     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 02-Dec-2025 02:15:57 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     • Hrefna (DHC)

     @hrefna I'm not claiming it's laundering money or committing tax fraud. Rather that they're fulfilling an existing promise (in at least one historical case, possibly the one that launched this whole practice, I believe it was a promise made as part of a settlement, but it's been a long time and I don't remember the details) to deliver $X in donations, so every extra $1 you donate at the checkout is just $1 less the corporation has to shell out to meet their pledge. No tax effect or fraud, but slimy.