Donors have an option of "tipping" Watsi apart from the donating to the patient's treatment. But I'm not sure if this alone covers their operating costs.
"100% of every donation to patients on Watsi directly funds medical treatment - our overhead costs are covered by optional donor tips, cause marketing partnerships, and private donors, foundations and corporations."
Thanks, Josh! Our operational costs are covered by foundations, philanthropists, and donors who leave an optional tip during checkout. More in our FAQ: watsi.org/faq
Chase, Watsi's founder, spoke at start up school last year.
Donate first, then watch his talk and then donate again. Make sure you look for the tip option on the checkout page if you want to help cover Watsi's operational costs.
A problem with internationalization: One difficulty with wanting to contribute to projects like this is that you don't get tax credits on donations outside of your home country, which means I or my business cannot contribute any significant amount. I understand it would be a mountain of paperwork (and probably a loss in terms of accounting costs) for Watsi to be registered as a non-profit in every country.
Is this some kind of Scrooge McDuck excuse? If your income tax rate is 30%, on $1,000 donation, you get only $300 back in tax credits. If donation is not tax-deductible, then you won't get $300 so don't donate $1,000. Donate only $700.
Where I pay taxes, I cannot donate money to non-profit registered in another country and write off the tax. Therefore, if I am a business my donation is taxed as cash spending. If I have already paid PAYE tax, I cannot apply for a tax refund on my donation. My country is not subsiding another country's non-profits. Neither is yours.
No, because my country (the USA) doesn't tax "cash spending". It taxes income, and it (well, in most cases, individual states), taxes certain sales (generally, this tax is collected by the seller, but when its a foreign seller the buyer may be resposible for it as a "use" tax.) If I don't get a taxable good or service in exchange, its not a taxable sale, and the seller doesn't have to collect sales tax (and, if the seller is foreign, I don't have to pay use tax.)
For a foreign "non-profit", I won't get a deduction from taxable income for income tax purposes for the donation the way I would if the donation was to a local non-profit [1], but I don't have to pay an extra "cash spending" tax the way you describe.
[1] Actually, strictly this is a local charity, which is a narrower category than non-profits. Donations to local non-charity non-profits are generally not tax deductible to the person making the donation, even if the non-profit is itself tax-exempt.
I'm genuinely not understanding this. Taxing "income" and "cash spending" is the same (at least, where I am taxed).
If I am a business and have earned $1000, keeping it in the bank is exactly the same as if I withdrew that $1000 and put it under the bed in $20 notes. I pay tax on that $1000. I can give it to Watsi, who is outside of my country's tax jurisdiction, and I must pay tax on that $1000.
You were taxed when you received that money, so you don't have $1000, you only have $700 (assuming a 40% tax rate - sub in your own rate as applicable). If you get a tax deduction for giving to Watsi, you can give them $1000 and only lose $700 out of pocket. If you do not get a tax deduction for giving to Watsi, then you can give them $700 and lose $700 out of pocket. In either case, you are giving them $700 out of pocket.
> You were taxed when you received that money, so you don't have $1000, you only have $700 (assuming a 40% tax rate - sub in your own rate as applicable).
> Taxing "income" and "cash spending" is the same (at least, where I am taxed).
The upthread scenario addressed income taxation, and you asked whether or not people were not then taxed again on the after-tax amount because it was cash spending. Taxing income (with certain exceptions) may be generally comparable to taxing cash spending (with similar exceptions), but you don't generally get hit with both.
> If I am a business and have earned $1000, keeping it in the bank is exactly the same as if I withdrew that $1000 and put it under the bed in $20 notes. I pay tax on that $1000. I can give it to Watsi, who is outside of my country's tax jurisdiction, and I must pay tax on that $1000.
Sure, if you have $1000 of business income that isn't used for a tax-deductible business expense or tax-deductible charitable contribution, you have to pay tax on that. So, if you're marginal rate of taxation is 30%, a $1,000 donation to a local (and therefore, deductible) charity would actually cost you $700. So, if you could afford to give that $700, and find that Watsi is a better charity for your charitable impulses, enough to warrant the fact that you'll only be able to give them $700 for the $700 cost, rather than $1,000, you should just give them $700. That was the point lubos made upthread [1].
You then asked [2] whether that $700 didn't create an additiona tax liability as "cash spending". No, it doesn't. The $700 is the amount of the $1,000 left after the tax liability for not spending it on a deductible purpose is considered.
I finished reading this thread thinking that Watsi donations are not tax deductible in the US... In case anyone else was confused like I was, I just wanted to clarify -- Watsi donations ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE in the US. See their FAQ, way down the bottom: https://watsi.org/faq
What a wonderful thing to have created. I know I'm just some random dude on the internet, but you should all be incredibly proud of yourselves. I've been meaning to start donating for some time now, and the $50-to-funded thing pushed me to do it.
The act of funding a person rather than an organisation really connects me with the importance of giving the gift - it de-abstracts the situation somehow, and brings home the fact that for not-that-much-really money you can completely change someone's life.
I know I've beaten this drum on HN in the past, but one of the things I most love about Watsi is that you can set up a monthly automatic donation: https://watsi.org/monthly This makes it absolutely trivial to set it and help someone out every month, without having to do anything yourself (and thus, no way to forget it!)
They really do amazing work; congrats on two years, guys.
Watsi is incredible. I really love what they do and envy those who created it. It's also a nice surprise to see Watsi and I share the same birthday.
I'm a 26 year old, somewhat privileged white male. I have accomplished nothing in life. I'm still struggling to graduate from college which I'd spent 6 years of my life for. I get depressed thinking about it, and just want to dedicate everything I have as a human being to work for some humanitarian organization similar to Watsi so I could feel like I'm good for something. Of course, then I realize these organizations don't exist to help privileged people like me to figure out what we want in life, but to help people who have real problems. I'm such a cliche. I applaud Watsi team not because they're a bunch of wonderful people who have great talent, but because they wanted to use their talent to make the world a better place. I wish I had your courage.
I'll donate whenever I can, which doesn't amount to much, but every bit helps. I hope.
PS: This thread should be about Watsi but I couldn't help share what I feel. I hope you don't take it the wrong way. Thank you.
I don't often tear up reading something posted on HN, let alone a company's website...
I really wish my mobile internet was good enough to watch Chase's talk right now.
Edit: Also want to express that I'm proud of the Humble Bundle community! The games industry has made us lose faith in humanity a bit recently. It is heartwarming to hear we're regaining ground.
Awesome, for me Watsi is one of the most inspirational startups right now. Reminds me that if someone can, doing amazing startups is the right thing to do!
I am a student in Boston, born and raised in El Salvador, and I can attest the extent to which organizations like Watsi are helping save the lives of people like you and me. Chase, I'm giving up a cup of coffee a week; that's twenty bucks you can count on.
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