"No thanks, I research my own charities before making a donation"

Everyone is talking about how taxes work and no one is talking about how this meme works. He doesn’t need glasses anymore! It looks blurry with his glasses!
- He's even squinting!
- Fitting considering how cash register donations usually do not work the way it is described in the meme.

This is not how tax deductions for charitable donations work.
You round up to the dollar for a 50c donation
The business has 50c extra income
They write off 50c as tax deductible
They pay the exact same taxes whether or not you make a donation
- Sure, but they also get to advertise that they donated X thousands of dollars to charity, while the truth is that the actual donors get no tax benefits at all. And like OP said, I'd rather use https://charitynavigator.org/ to do my own research before giving money to a corporation to donate to some organization that may be mishandling their funds.
  
  Yup, it's not about stealing money it's about stealing goodwill.
  The customers at the grocery store don't get thanked for donating $50 million to fighting awful childhood diseases, the grocery store does.
  Then they can use that to argue they're good for the community, and deserve massive tax subsidies when they go to open their next store.
  Unrelated, I've talked with people who work in the corporate philanthropy part of a business, and they're fine. They're just happy to get to use their position to organize charity, even though they know the point to the business is goodwill not giving.
  It's other parts of the business that then milk that goodwill in incredibly scummy ways.
  
  The person who paid the round up donation (i.e. you) is the person allowed to use the donation for their tax benefit. If you save receipts with round up donations, you can deduct them on your taxes, but no one does that.
- That's not how it works either. You're the one naking a donation, you get a receipt for your 50 cent donation that YOU can claim on your taxes.
  The business getting you to make a donation doesn't get to claim your donation.
  
  Both you and the business can claim that as a tax deduction.
- This is a pretty good example of your typical misinformation karma whore clickbait ragebait bullshit post. Glad to see these make their way over from Reddit to Lemmy. Rip.
  
  Another poster mentioned that they can use this to ask for subsidies. Some might not consider tax benefits, but imo it’s tax benefits with extra steps.
  And you don’t even need to think of that, a for profit business only does what it benefits it. So if they ask, it’s mainly for their benefit, not mainly for sake of charity.
- They show boat about how much they do for charity
  
  They lobby against government aid programs and increased taxes because "look, see, we are help the poors, no need for the government to get involved!"
- It's not how Spider-Man works either.
- 2 and 3 don't actually happen since it can't be recorded on the P&L.
  The donation would get recorded to cash and offset to a liability account, probably something named Charitable Donations Payable likely with a subaccount for the specific programs.
  Overall, the effect is essentially the same, though. Fwiw, I like to use the same comparison as you did to show to people how dumb this belief is.
  The individual who donated at the register also is allowed to claim the donation when they file their taxes.
- That's not how tax filing works. Your #2 is completely wrong that's not considered income.
  Are you retarded?
  
  Confidently incorrect.

common misinformation, fact check here
Donations made by customers at checkout are not tax-deductible for the business, as the donation does not come from the company. According to TPC, the business only serves as a collector for charitable donations from its customers and has no right to claim any of the collected funds.
If you got this far in the comment, take a mental note to call this out the next time you see it. I too am very critical of the late stage capitalist hellscape we live in, but rounding up for charity is a rare instance of an unproblematic practice that is damaging to discourage as this post does. Charities do a lot of good and when you donate to them you are the one that gets the opportunity to do a writeoff.
Edit: If you are wondering why they do it then, it’s a psychological marketing technique. If you come to associate the good things that the Ronald McDonald House does with your McBurger, you are more likely to buy more tasty McBurgers. Sketchy? Sure, but it happens to be really effective at supporting charity work so it’s kind of a mutually beneficial arrangement.
- I'm just instinctively averse to corporate bullshit because corporations don't do anything unless it serves them in some way.
  Why do I have to round up to a dollar? I just dropped 159$ shopping at your store, you round up and give some of your profits to charity, don't guilt trip me with this nonsense as you rape me with fake sales and shrinkflation.
  I'll donate to charities that I want and I'll give more than a miesely dollar.
  
  i totally get that, and your instincts are noble, which is probably why this misconception is so pervasive. i too was in your position once, but yeah, no harm is done by donating at checkout.

Your meme is the wrong way around.

That’s not really how taxes work.

My charities are in my neighbourhood, like your friendly spiderman.
Like cooking for the less fortunate, giving kids my abandoned PC stuff, building together their new rig, supplying food packets to fams in need, like with the "to good to go" program here in the Netherlands. Supplying local food banks.
I have been homeless for a long time and now I share what I consider a very fat bank account. I certainly knew how to share when I had nothing, makes one humble, makes one appreciate rain on the window, or a shower whenever you want one. I got served a patato soup and a glass of port after eating nothing walking around hungry for days by a guy who had himself nothing, engraved in my mind.
We got all we need now and then some... Why not see a problem at close and solve it right there. I am surely not giving Bob Geldof any money, fuck that guy.
- It's an odd world where building a gaming PC is now considered charity
  
  Heheh...Yeah, I never said gaming PC, the last build was a Linux machine with a RX470 and i5 4460 for an autistic boy who is into programming and tinkering with Linux distributions. Also needed it for school work. Thrown out by his parents, lonely, assisted living in a small room, so we got him a coffee machine, water cooker and microwave, and when he is here I always cook him a good meal. Thin as a leaf, eats two plates full, smears my herb butter on both sides of the bread.
  He is a good friend of my son who is also autistic.
  The build before was a Ryzen 5 with a GTX 1060 and an old Wacom tablet for a girl who can really paint great manga type art, her old PC took 20 minutes to start, which I fixed and gave to the guy I mentioned before. Her dad died, mom doesn't have much, again pc needed for school work.

I'm pretty sure that's illegal for the corpo
That said still don't do it.
- A multi-billion dollar corporation needs my 32 cents though!

The Nonprofit Industrial Complex: What Is It and How Does It Work?
This tax-exempt status has been a boon for the nonprofit sector. The code arguably encourages elites to divert money otherwise spent on taxes to private foundations where they can distribute funds as they see fit.

Your meme is backwards

Look them in the eye as you tap "no".
- Cashiers don’t care, it saves them from whatever cringeworthy ’attention getter’ corporate policy like clapping or ringing a bell they’re compelled to do if you donate
  
  That would drive me away from donating. You already took my money, so at least have the decency to leave me alone.
- I bought a bottle of water at the airport for $4.50
  The POS kiosk asked me if I wanted to leave a tip. It was completely unintentional, but I chuckled at this dystopian scenario playing out, tapped "no" while starting to make eye contact with the cashier, they had a friendly smile so I just apologized but made sure to speak loudly and clearly over the airport sounds.
  From her perspective, I must have looked like I boldly stared her in the eyes and chuckled at shorting her, then threw out an IRL SorryNotSorry.
  I hope her day improved after that unfortunate interaction...

I will say don't give corporate any money for charity, instead donate yourself to your favourite charity & get tax benefits for this.

- heads up this post is actually common misinformation, albeit with an understandable reasoning behind it.
  here’s a fact check article that is helpful.

I ask them if they wanna help pay my taxes and that I donate to who I chose and they should stop asking
- Maybe don't harass the cashier about it. They are just as helpless as you in dictating what the company does.
  
  They could tell their managers the customer feedback. Otherwise the grift continues which sounds like you’re ok with
- heads up this post is common misinformation. when you do a round up donation it’s you that are eligible to get a tax writeoff, and never the business collecting the donation. see my other comments for sources.

common misinformation, fact check here