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.