Zuckerberg denies tax dodge
Print Edition
FACEBOOK Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday that he and his wife would receive no tax benefit from setting up their new philanthropic endeavor as a limited liability company and hinted at the types of efforts it would support.
In a post on his Facebook page, he wrote that “just like everyone else, we will pay capital gains taxes when our shares are sold by the LLC.”
While reiterating that the entity, called the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, would focus on areas like education and disease, he indicated the efforts would be similar to philanthropy he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, had already supported.
Their recent donations include US$20 million to EducationSuperHighway, which helps connect classrooms to the Internet, and a new acute care and trauma center at San Francisco General Hospital, where Chan works as a pediatrician.
The couple said on Tuesday that 99 percent of the stock they hold in Facebook would go toward the philanthropic project over their lifetimes. At the stock’s current price, that stake is worth US$45 billion.
Responding to a comment he would pay “ZERO tax” for the initiative’s investments that was made in reply to his Facebook post on Thursday, Zuckerberg denied that was the case.
“Please don’t spread inaccurate information,” he posted.
The initiative aims “to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation,” the couple said in the message posted as a letter to their newborn daughter.
“Our initial areas of focus will be personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities,” it said.
Yet many well-intentioned gifts can end up doing little to achieve their goals, such as Zuckerberg’s 2010 donation of US$100 million aimed at improving public schools in Newark, New Jersey, which has been seen as a failure.
“One of the biggest challenges for the big donors is to make sure that their money benefits those who need it the most,” said Pablo Eisenberg at the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership at Georgetown University.
Some “give money to large and well established institutions, and not to the neediest people and the marginalized population,” he said, adding it is important for the Zuckerbergs to have advisers “who understand what’s going on.”
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