--- title: "Elon Musk’s “Charity” Is Hoarding Money Instead of Giving It to the Needy" description: "Elon Musk's charity is falling short of the minimum amount of money it is supposed to giveaway by hundreds of millions of dollars." date: "2024-12-13" modified: "2024-12-13" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-charity-hoarding-money" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "the digest" --- # Elon Musk’s “Charity” Is Hoarding Money Instead of Giving It to the Needy ![Elon Musk's charity is falling short of the minimum amount of money it is supposed to giveaway by hundreds of millions of dollars.]() *\Image: Anna Moneymaker via Getty\* ## Mr. Miser The holidays may be approaching, but it appears that SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is remaining a total scrooge. The *[New York Times ]()*[reports]() that the centibillionaire's charity, the Musk Foundation, failed to give away the minimum amount of money it was supposed to last year by a stupendous margin of $421 million. This continues Musk's pattern of shadily managing his ostensibly philanthropic efforts, such as when he [made it seem like he was donating billions of dollars]() to the United Nations to combat world hunger but instead [funneled that money to his own charity](). Now, if Musk doesn't give away that sum by the end of 2024, he will be forced to pay a "sizable penalty" to the Internal Revenue Service, according to *NYT*'s reporting. ## Pocket Change According to the *NYT*, Musk's charity has increasingly fallen behind on payments despite possessing some $9 billion in assets today. It was $41 million short in 2021, $234 million in 2022, and is now approaching half a billion this year. He's made up for those shortfalls so far by paying late, but only barely. "The distributions made by the foundation are meeting the bare minimum to avoid penalties," Brian Mittendorf, an accounting professor at the Ohio State University, told the *NYT*. "It is clear that the organization is not in a hurry to spend its money." The newspaper notes that other charitable foundations have fallen short of the IRS's minimum by millions of dollars, but that Musk's is an anomaly even among those because of the staggering sum it has to pay and the rate at which that shortfall is increasing. And there are other shady facets of the organization, the *NYT* found. It's never hired employees, and its three directors — Musk is one of them — have spent just two hours per week at the foundation over the past three years. In the cases where it has actually given away money, it has often gone to organizations with close ties to Musk. In 2023, he made a $137 million donation to a nonprofit called The Foundation run by several of Musk's close associates, which operates a private school in Texas close to where several of Musk's businesses are based and where he plans to build a large subdivision for his employees. ## Tax Attack Ultra-wealthy figures [have long used philanthropic organizations as a refuge from the treasury department](), taking advantage of their generous tax breaks. That's nothing new. But this dodgy charity management is especially hypocritical behavior from Musk, who has championed increased scrutiny into how government funds are spent and has proposed slashing trillions of dollars in federal expenditures through his so-called [Department of Government Efficiency](), which will be formed as part of the incoming Trump administration. One of his chief targets, unsurprisingly, has been the IRS. Musk recently suggested "[deleting]()" the federal agency, while consistently calling for the hollowing out of others. Even before his DOGE crusade and overt rightward turn, Musk has [groused]() publicly about government tax men and [spread obvious falsities]() about the IRS. For someone so concerned about scrupulous spending, then, it seems that Musk can be quite underhanded with how he spends his fortune. **More on Musk:** *[Elon Musk Gloats as Trump Announces Billionaires Will Be Exempt From Normal Environmental Rules]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()