Arts said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Arts said:

on a much smaller scale there was a guy who used to work with Mr Arts. He would put one of those fundraising chocolate boxes in the staff kitchen.. you know the deal you pay for the whole box then charge people 2 – 3 bucks for the chocolate bar and then profit like $20 per box. He would do this throughout the year.. and to his credit would donate the cash to telethon or something.. then use that donation to claim it back on his taxes..

he was literally making money through everyone else paying… and all above board.. the only reason people got pissed was because they didn’t think of it first.

That would be illegal.

why? he was donating the money, just in his name, not the collective that actually put in for it.

Because those who bought the chocolate would be perfectly entitled to ask for a receipt and claim the tax deduction for themselves. The bloke administering this scheme is not allowed to double dip for any amount claimed by someone else. If people didn’t make the claim themselves then technically the tax paper isn’t being defrauded but then they’d be pretty silly to not bother if they bought multiple chocolates a year. Either way Mr Arts and his colleagues were certainly remiss in not doing so if they thought this was at all shonky.

It would all be in the terms and conditions of buying a full box off whichever organisation is making the provision.