When stores donate charity money collected from customers, do they take a tax deduction?

[Tired_and_Cranky]

@CookingWithGas

Many companies have been blasted for doing this sort of thing on business transactions–not charitable contributions, but other types. For example, Travelco.com acts as an agent when you buy a BigAir plane ticket. It’s a wash for Travelco but they show it on their financial statements as gross as principal, vs. net as an agent. But it’s not a true picture of their revenue at all. It was never really their money to begin with.

I would think you have the same issue with treating charitable pass-through as gross revenue, even if you expense it on the back end.

That gets to the issue of agency transactions I alluded to but didn’t discuss thoroughly in post 11. Honestly, I’m no expert in agency transactions. I believe in the end though it winds up in the same place – no effect on net income or net assets for the store.

This would be a bigger issue if the difference between agency transaction treatment and the method I described above were material. I doubt that the charity contributions raised from customers is ever material for the stores doing these point-of-sale solicitations.

[QUOTE=filmore]
From a practical standpoint, how do stores manage the donated money when customers put cash in a special container for the charity? Stores like 7-11 and McDonalds will have special containers for customers to donate their change at the register. How do they make sure all that physical cash ends up going to the charity?
[/QUOTE]

We had a recent thread dealing with that question.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=19672988