Lego foundation donates $100 mil

ReesesPieces

Just saw this on thebrickfan.
That is a lot of money and a great cause.
https://www.legofoundation.com/en/about-us/news/the-lego-foundation-awards-100-million-to-sesame-workshop-to-bring-the-power-of-learning-through-play-to-children-affected-by-the-rohingya-and-syrian-refugee-crises/?fbclid=IwAR20QHpgSn0w5m6ctKnkfVdURqpWjaXpKY00rImxmFLxsTkvkejbLTdtE20

The sets sometimes seem over priced and I've spent way more on Lego than I should but this kind of news makes me feel a little better about it.

Bosstone100

I wonder how much of a tax credit they get for that $100 million. 

SumoLego

I'm sure the LEGO Foundation doesn't pay income taxes.  Although I'd be interested when and how much of that $1B of TLG profit made it over to the Foundation.

I'm sure TLG got a healthy tax reduction for that donation!

Pitfall69

Bosstone100 said:

I wonder how much of a tax credit they get for that $100 million. 

When you donate; you don't get a tax credit, but you do get a tax deduction at least in US :) 

piratemania7

I’m surprised TLG hasn’t done philanthropy on this level before? It’s certainly something that doesn’t go unnoticed.

SumoLego

People are bored by donations and the like.

1265

Smoke and mirrors.....in the end TLG gets more publicity and yet we still pay for higher priced substandard plastic made in countries like China.

klinton

I think corporate donations essentially come from a good place. The tax provisions are what ultimately gets them approved and rubber stamped, but it tends to start with an internal push from individuals who put a lot of personal time and effort into setting up the proposal and nursing the project to fruition because it's the right thing to do (all of that corporate sway can do a bit of good in the world if pointed in the right direction). 

The negative response in here to a good thing is rather baffling. 

Pitfall69

The comments don't seem overly negative. I'm sure that most of us would donate a hefty sum if we had the money. 

I would like to know what companies give the most by percentage of annual revenue? Microsoft claims that they give about $2 million a day. Their annual revenue is around 90 billion US doolars.

It would also be interesting to to see what people would give if their weren't any tax breaks. 

Bosstone100

Pitfall69 said:

Bosstone100 said:

I wonder how much of a tax credit they get for that $100 million. 

When you donate; you don't get a tax credit, but you do get a tax deduction at least in US :) 

That's what I meant. 

stlux

Part of the conversation in this thread seems to display a misunderstanding of how TLG is organized. There's no tax impact to TLG from this donation, simply because The LEGO Foundation is not part of TLG. 
The Foundation however is 25% owner of TLG, with the other 75% held by KIRKBI A/S, the Kristiansen's family office. TLG pays out a large part of their profits to both as dividends - DKK 7B for 2017.

Even though TLG, the Foundation and KIRKBI are all privately held, all 3 publish their annual statements online (in English). This includes how much tax they pay: TLG paid corporate income tax of DKK 2.4B for 2017, supposedly an effective tax rate of 23.5%. With Danish corporate tax set at 22%, they don't seem to go out of their way to underpay.
KIRKBI reports paying corporate taxes of DKK 3.365B, however as they consolidate TLG's numbers on their balance sheet, I assume this already includes what TLG paid. (Disclaimer: I'm not an accountant)

Not sure as to why this is now news. The Brick Fan has finally discovered the Foundations website, and looked at their press releases? The Foundation doesn't seem to have made a bigger deal out of this than any of their other activities. With the Sesame Workshop award paid out over 5 years, the yearly grant should not have a big impact to the total amount the Foundation distributes; probably will just be in line with the annual increase of grant activities over the past 5 years.

SumoLego

(Because I want a Cookie Monster minifigure.)

If the taxation system in Denmark is anything like the US, there would be additional income tax on the reciepients of the dividends.  There would also be no tax on the distribution to the Foundation.  I would posit this is why the Foundation owns 25% of TLG.  Individual dividend reciepients would also be able to utilize philantropic deductions to lower their income tax liability.

I'm also not an accountant, so take my additional comments for what they're worth.

Pitfall69

^THIS 

The day that this news came out I texted a few of my friends and I was wondering more if we would be getting Seasame Street sets and/or Minifigures???

Lyichir

1265 said:

Smoke and mirrors.....in the end TLG gets more publicity and yet we still pay for higher priced substandard plastic made in countries like China.

This donation will make a bigger impact in the lives of the people who will benefit from it than non-Chinese plastic would make in yours. There are places to voice concerns about issues for consumers like plastic quality but to do so in response to an article about a philanthropic donation of this magnitude is remarkably self-centered.

SumoLego

I suppose the folks working in China should be complaining that the profit from production in China is being exported to some foreign country in far-off Europe?  And that said donation will have no effect on their children?

Maybe with some labor standards and less dictatorial communism, then they would benefit.

Aanchir

Pitfall69 said:

^THIS 

The day that this news came out I texted a few of my friends and I was wondering more if we would be getting Seasame Street sets and/or Minifigures???

Last I checked, Mega Bloks had the Sesame Street license, and if LEGO were to acquire that license I'd expect it to become a Duplo subtheme, if anything.

Pitfall69

^Well, I know that Lego produced Seasame Street Lego polybags for McDonald's because I have a couple. There's an Ideas set that is getting some attention.

I know that MegaBloks have the license now, but why is it out of the question that Lego get the license? Both companies have interchanged licenses over the years so...

Baby_Yoda

I know Lego have stolen licences from other companies, most recently Blizzard, but have the likes of Mega Construx ever taken one from Lego.?

gmonkey76

Didn't Sponge Bob go back and forth between the two.

Lyichir

gmonkey76 said:

Didn't Sponge Bob go back and forth between the two.

Yes. TMNT as well.

That said, it's sort of inaccurate to say Lego "stole" the "Blizzard" license because despite the company licensing with Mega Bloks and then Lego, the licenses in question were for two different IPs. Just because they're owned by the same company doesn't mean that company can't pick and choose licensing partners brand-by-brand. Just as an example, Microsoft currently owns both Mojang (the developer of Minecraft) and 343 Industries (the current developer of the Halo series), yet licenses the former to Lego and the latter to Mega Bloks.

That's a misconception I often see come up when the discussion of a possible Nintendo-licensed Lego theme. While K'nex currently has the license to produce Mario and Mario Kart themed sets, that license presumably doesn't necessarily grant K'nex exclusive access to Nintendo's other franchises.

klinton

Mattel hax held the Sesame Street master licence for decades now. I don't really see them licensing the property to Lego now, after going to the effort of buying up Mega Blocks to have their own in house building blocks.