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posted by takyon on Friday December 04 2015, @02:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the soylent-pbc dept.

Jesse Eisinger writes in the NYT that if you heard that Mark Zuckerberg donated $45 billion to charity, you are wrong. Here's what really happened: Zuckerberg did not set up a charitable foundation, which has nonprofit status. Instead Zuckerberg created an investment vehicle called a limited liability company (LLC) that can invest in for-profit companies, make political donations, and lobby for changes in the law. What's more an LLC can donate appreciated shares to charity, which will generate a deduction at fair market value of the stock without triggering any tax. "He remains completely free to do as he wishes with his money," writes Eisinger. "That's what America is all about. But as a society, we don't generally call these types of activities "charity.""

A charitable foundation is subject to rules and oversight. It has to allocate a certain percentage of its assets every year. The new Zuckerberg LLC won't be subject to those rules and won't have any transparency requirements. According to Eisinger what this means is that Zuckerberg has amassed one of the greatest fortunes in the world — and is likely never to pay any taxes on it. "Instead of lavishing praise on Mr. Zuckerberg for having issued a news release with a promise, this should be an occasion to mull what kind of society we want to live in," concludes Eisinger. "The point is that we are turning into a society of oligarchs. And I am not as excited as some to welcome the new Silicon Valley overlords."

Previously: Mark Zuckerberg to Donate $45 Billion Facebook Fortune to Charity


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Friday December 04 2015, @04:59PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday December 04 2015, @04:59PM (#271854) Journal

    Hmm, well I'm not tooooo concerned about some of the $45 billion rubbing off back into Zuck's coffers.

    For all the criticism [techrights.org] the Gates Foundation gets around here, the Zuck LLC may be even more transparently self-serving for the founder. Since one of the goals seems to be increasing Internet access... which could mean more profits for Facebook. And since the shares will be given to the LLC over a long period of time, they get more money if the LLC's activities increases the value of Facebook..

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 04 2015, @05:24PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 04 2015, @05:24PM (#271863)

    > Hmm, well I'm not tooooo concerned about some of the $45 billion rubbing off back into Zuck's coffers.

    It's his right. Just don't call it charity.

    > Since one of the goals seems to be increasing Internet access...

    You just know that's going to be all about increasing access to the facebook walled garden, aka facebook-zero. [wikipedia.org]