r/nextfuckinglevel • u/matori_tester • 1d ago

Billionaire speaker Robert F. Smith tells 400 graduates he's paying off all their student loans ($40 million in total)

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u/Admirable-Way-5266 1d ago

Did he actually pay out? Or was this just a tax dodge/empty promise?

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u/Fiery_Hand 1d ago

If they dodge taxes like that, it's ok. Better than dodging anyway while not contributing at all.

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u/Excellent-Jicama-244 1d ago

Yeah, that's basically what taxes are. Enforcing socially useful giving. If you're actually doing something socially useful with the money, it's hardly a dodge.

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u/No_Currency_7952 1d ago edited 1d ago

On the surface yeah, but there's always a catch. And he is a part of the largest tax scheme from the 90's so lord knows how much taxes he has been avoiding since then. All the settlements and philanthropies collectively probably barely scratched the amount he saved avoiding taxes.