Comment by replwoacause
2 years ago
They donated the company, they didn't sell it. That means they would have never paid 875M in taxes since a donation means they don't receive the underlying investment gains as they would have if it were a sale. His family is left only with voting rights, not equity.
Similarly Mr. Seid donated his company, didn't sell it. NYT says he got "an enormous personal tax windfall". Yes, the charity he donated it to then sold it. Does a person's tax windfall status depend on what the charity does with the stock after donation?
I guess you could say that NYT's position is:
* If the charity sells the stock, we'll consider the donor to have gotten "an enormous personal tax windfall".
* If the charity holds the stock and instead collects dividends from it for a long period, we'll consider the donor to have gotten "no tax benefit".
I don't think that's a logical position though. For one thing, what if the Patagonia-owning charity decides tomorrow to sell the stock? Does NYT retroactively go back and say the Chouinard family actually did get a tax benefit?