The problem is the store charaties are always awful. I donate to local charities that actually do good work with it (Non-affiliated-beyond-being-donor plug: https://www.nuci.org/), not to bloated “awareness” charaties like Komen.

I assume the main point of asking for charities at the POS system is to, in no order, a) give to that charity, and/or b) to get the tax deduction as if the company gave that charity. Ex: $1 charity = some $0.35 discount on company taxes.

And "awareness" is a big part of some cultures [0] as it allows for the distribution of the idea of caring without devoting some of one's life to the cause.

[0] https://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/23/18-awareness/

I don't think you get a tax deduction by processing someone else's donations. Even if you did, wouldn't you have to first treat it as income, so it cancels out?

People are downvoting you, but you are correct.

People believe all sorts of weird thing about tax deductions (almost always _income_ deductions).

Income $1 and then give away that $1 is a net negative, so I assume it's more like: I give you, the company, $1 as a "gift", which I'm allowed to gift you some hundreds of dollars per year without an extra tax form. You take that "gift" and donate it, thereby netting you the 35 cents.

Interested to hear specifics if anyone knows!

Why wouldn’t $1 that just be counted as regular income?

Upon some light internet diving (backstroking), it appears that the company cannot deduct the customer's donation, according to a couple random websites.

There's a beer here in the SF Bay Area that words its charitable claim like "up to 8% to local causes", which can mean anything from doing nothing at all to earmarking 8% of the revenue for their new yacht which is parked locally.

> to get the tax deduction as if the company gave that charity

This should be illegal.

I am pretty sure it is illegal. It is the donor that may claim the tax deduction, if any. The retailer may not claim it merely by being a conduit for donated funds.

Really, St Jude Children's hospital is awful? Would you like to give some sources for that? That's the only charity I get asked about often enough to remember and I'm happy to see companies going to bat for them (at least unless someone such as yourself manages to convince me of how awful they are).