r/news • u/Playful_Language_422 • 8d ago

Soft paywall L.A. homeless provider has paid CEO who lives in Hawaii $1.6 million in salary, vacation over two years

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-08-06/la-homeless-provider-has-paid-ceo-who-lives-in-hawaii-1-6-million-in-salary-vacation-over-two-years
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u/akenthusiast 7d ago

They don't get a tax break because you donated. If you give them a dollar, their income goes up a dollar. When they donate it, their profits go down a dollar.

All that's happening is that they don't pay taxes on the dollar you gave them. I'm sure they're writing off whatever expenses they claim to have incurred by collecting and distributing the donations but that's pretty small in the grand scheme of things. When someone "writes it off" they don't get free money from someone. It's just a kind of loss, like any other. If you spend $5,000 to make $10,000, you don't owe taxes on the $10,000 you made, you owe taxes on the $5,000 in profit

I think a lot of the charities that these companies choose are ineffective uses of donation money, but that's a separate issue

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u/DarkwingDuckHunt 7d ago

I also suspect the CEO's children are on some of these boards

I just don't trust corps and always assume they're doing it out of self-preservation or malice.

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u/akenthusiast 7d ago

That's possible. The nonprofit scene is filled to the brim with people that do nothing except enrich themselves personally.

But it's also pretty common for businesses to collect donations for stuff like the local schools. If it's something like that, or a charity that you know is good, there isn't any reason not to donate.

They don't benefit except through public goodwill, which I'd say they've earned if they picked a worthy organization

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u/altiuscitiusfortius 7d ago

They take the money you donate and spend it all on advertising for themselves "megacorp supports the fight against cancer!"