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One of the things that galls me about NGOs is that you cannot become a UN approved NGO unless you sign on to all of the agenda of the UN. The NGOs promote UN positions, and if you disagree with any part of that agenda, you’re not allowed to participate.
Conflict minerals is to blood diamonds as kinetic military action is to war.
“It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.”– Mark Twain
There probably isn’t a way, but I’d like to see how much non-value-added time and money was spent on this ridiculous activity. I know our company’s corporate office spent millions of dollars on a consultant to do the job of contacting all our suppliers for their reports, collating the data, and presenting Corporate with what ever final report they came up with. I remember sitting in more than one Purchasing staff meeting thinking…this really sucks, and we get NO benefit. Not one of the high-level staff thought to question the worth of this activity-if the all-mighty Government requires it, it must be good. What a waste!
Fascinating, Skipsul, and depressing. Good luck with compliance.
As an old Dilbert strip said, “You can’t spell compliance without liance.”
The Road to Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions….
The Potholes in The Road To Hell are Regulations From Washington DC…
Fixing The Road To Hell is Tied Up In Committee….
Ok, who’s the chain gang on the road to hell?
I believe that is composed of the Usual Suspects.
Welcome Titus!
If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, what’s the Jersey turnpike paved with? Chopped liver?
– Robert Klein
Isn’t that a road in hell?
I understand Hell gave it back. They have standards.
Hell was full. That’s why I lived in Jersey.
Had a conversation with a coworker today. He brought up Trump’s promise to cut two regulations for every new one as an eminently sensible idea. I agreed, provided that we actually see that happen.
As this is mandated by Sarbanes Oxley, the reporting requirement is more of a law than a regulation, but it should still be high on the chopping block.
The taxpayers?
Seawriter
Taxpayers.
I obviously need to read all of the comments before getting an itchy trigger finger on the comment button.
It was too obvious an answer.
Seawriter
But that never stopped us before.
What does one expect? National and international NGOs are generally run by self serving liberals. Their goal is to raise money. We must simplify and reduce tax rates so that we can eliminate charitable deductions and we need to expose the bad ones. But we can’t police all of them so just don’t give them any tax supported money nor give charitable givers deductions, especially not corporate donors. What little positive many do is done to generate photo ops, stories for fund drives or to enhance a declining celebrity. There are exceptions such as church run operations and local knowable specialized efforts to help real people close enough to home to know about them.
The documentation headache of Dodd-Frank is real. Best of luck with the craziness.
So, how do we throw out the bathwater and keep the baby?
I always knew NGOs sucked but this is worse than I thought.
Abolish the charitable deduction.
Show of hands. Everyone who donates money to a charity for just the tax deduction, raise your hand. Now everyone who donates money to a charity because it does good work and you think it worthwhile raise your hand.
The charities collecting money from those only interested in the tax breaks will go under. They likely will not be missed. The charities collecting money from those who believe in the charity’s mission will survive.
I would give the same money to my church or my charities regardless of any tax breaks I get. I suspect I am not alone. Worthwhile charities (the baby) would survive. Virtue-signalling charities whose main function is a good living for their employees (the bathwater) would die. This includes most NGOs.
Seawriter
It could in theory go up! I’m a radical on tax reform – no differentiation between sources of income, no deductions, no corporate tax, 10% income rate regardless of income with the one exception of having no estate tax.
Imagine all the people suddenly having a lot more money to give in charity.
I like this suggestion. Probably worth a post in itself too as we are nearing the end of the year and charities are all hammering away at the solicitations.
I’m not so sure about this. It’s not like the deduction saves more than the charitable gift, unless one is right at the margin of a bracket. What does one save? 39.6¢ on the dollar at most? Would people stop giving to what we consider bad causes if there were no deductions? Maybe they would give less, since they would only have 60.4¢ at the highest rates, but would it stop them?
Those giving to the ones we don’t like probably value them just as much as we value our churches. Am I missing something big in the tax code?
Corporate giving.
Seawriter
But, aren’t those often dictated by extortion? I mean, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, et al. The corporations don’t just give to be giving; they give with a purpose.
My company matches my Hillsdale donation, up to $1000, and my husband’s company matches both our donations. So, due to “corporate giving”, my donation is tripled. His company matches most of the rest of our donations, and the Curtis Institute of Music, Seattle Chamber Music Society, and Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra are pretty pleased about that.