I’m an American sick of being taxed by the dysfunctional US federal government and am looking for ways to reduce the amount paid as well as increase my contribution to society. I’m not looking to reduce state taxes.

How can I find out the amount I can donate to charities each year such that it reduces my federal taxes as much as possible for my income level?

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    In most cases with rich people the two hacks are

    1. Spending the money in the form of value indeterminate goods like artwork where you donate a painting you bought for 20k to a museum and the museum says “Gosh we probably would have paid 40 million for this painting” so for 20k you write off a 40 million loss. This is fraud if obvious but if the painting was last commercially sold in 1907 it’s really difficult to definitively say what it would sell for today and everyone involved is motivated to inflate that number as high as possible.

    2. Donating to the “Me Benevolent Trust Foundation” Trump is famous for this bullshit but most billionaires do this. You donate your money to a charity that spends your money how you want it spent - maybe it’s somewhat altruistic and you’re just using it to invest in causes you care about while being able to write all your funding off as a loss for taxes or maybe the foundation operates a private jet that is exclusively used by you and charges you one dollar per flight. Trump has heavily abused these sorts of charities in the past.

    Also like… other ways. Rich people go to extreme lengths to avoid paying taxes and some of those methods are truly bizarre.

    But hey, as long as they all donate 1 million to his inauguration fund, Trump doesn’t give a shit.

    • Skydancer
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      2 days ago

      To elaborate on #1: The museum then lends you the painting for the rest of your life.