My grandmother and the owner gives away my salary to the church

[forgotten1]

So im 24 work in my families business we do about a million in sales a year at a 35% markup...after cost our business probably makes about 250k a year to be invested back into the business and to pay my grandmother(owner) my father and I plus our 2 other employees. I have been offered jobs that would pay me around 4-5k a month but i keep plugging away and working 60+ hours here to grow our business hoping my salary at 30k a year would eventually see some return on my hard work. Today my grandmother in trying to show how much my father was making in comparison to the both of us when I noticed in our break down a 7k a month in charitable donations that go to her church. This irks me to no end. Our entire payroll wasnt much more then that. I fully believe that she has fed into the idea that this church (by the way its one of those bigs ones with lots of "people") promotes, the more you give the more faithful you are.

 

Please give me some insight on how to approach her... as it stands i have no stake in the ownership but will soon in the process as we speak but may take 6 to 12 months. I understand tithing, im not saying for her to stop but when the tithing represents almost 25% of the business income after cost of goods not considering inkeep which would probably bring it closers to 40-50% is too much especially when we struggle to pay bills.

 

Thank you

[annie24]

maybe you can talk to your father about this this donation and see if he will bring it up with her.

 

otherwise, i don't blame you for looking for a job that is more fruitful.

[Day_Walker]

Well there are a lot of factors that will go into her authority to make these large charitable donations. If you do not like the way the business is running then I doubt that you are going to change her mind as to how much money she gives to her church. I would just look for another job.

[forgotten1]

Well there are a lot of factors that will go into her authority to make these large charitable donations. If you do not like the way the business is running then I doubt that you are going to change her mind as to how much money she gives to her church. I would just look for another job.

 

Right now the business could not support itself if any one of us 3 were to leave.

[FathomFear]

I would discuss the issue with your father first. It's probably a delicate subject. It will cross the line from a business discussion to a discussion about her faith.

[G-Snap]

Right now the business could not support itself if any one of us 3 were to leave.

 

Then perhaps this is what you use as leverage to get her to stop. Tell her you don't find this to be fair that she is basing her tithe on a percentage of the BUSINESS overall income vs her own salary and that if this continues you feel it would be best if you found a job elsewhere. I know that will be a hard convo to have, but seriously that is ridiculous. Sure she owns the business, but it is wreckless IMO to take that much money to donate when it is impacting the salary of other people who work there.

 

Since this is her decision to pay that amount in tithe, she should ONLY be using a percentage of HER income not the entire business. That is ridiculous and irresponsible. It is her choice to donate that way thus she should not be taking a percentage of the business income but rather a percentage of whatever her paycheck is. If she doesn't get a paycheck she shouldn't be donating anything.

 

Sounds like your grandmother is getting paid a salary the same as the rest of you. That is the only thing she should be using to take her church tithe out of.

 

DOes she get a good write off tax wise for this? If so, perhaps that offsets the amount some because corporations donate to charity all the time but they get big write offs and they can afford it. Not sure how that works with smaller family owned businesses.

You couldn't PAY ME ANY amount of money to work with ANY of my family. I'd lose my mind.

[annie24]

You couldn't PAY ME ANY amount of money to work with ANY of my family. I'd lose my mind.

 

word.

 

i, too, wonder if she gets business/tax breaks by donating the company's earnings to a non-profit. that may be part of the reason she does it.

 

you can simply tell them that you've gotten another offer from another company where you will earn much more than here. maybe they'd be willing to negotiate a raise to have you stay?

[nicknick]

That seems an awful big donation to the church. Be good to see a breakdown of what they do with donations! I would lay it on the line...no kidding.

[orchidrose]

i, too, wonder if she gets business/tax breaks by donating the company's earnings to a non-profit. that may be part of the reason she does it.

 

For that large of an amount, especially since it represents a large portion of the company's income, the tax benefits would definitely be worth it.

[orchidrose]

That seems an awful big donation to the church. Be good to see a breakdown of what they do with donations! I would lay it on the line...no kidding.

 

All 501©(3) and other charitable organizations are required to file their financial information with their state and have it accessible to the public. This paperwork doesn't break down exactly what they do with each donation (ie all $1,000 of this donation went to this program), but it will tell you how much they raised in their last fiscal year and what their expenses were.

[Day_Walker]

Right now the business could not support itself if any one of us 3 were to leave.

 

Actually that isnt true she would just have to decide that she couldnt make such large charitable contributions and she would have to hire additional staff. The problem with working for family is that the family dimension itself exerts too much pressure on the work relationship.

 

My advice still stands, look for another job and let your grandmother worry about running her business.

[Intense]

Quit and start your own business. Your grandmother sounds like a bad businessperson. Giving away money to the church that could be used to reinvest or at least give employees a better payroll makes absolutely no sense. Charity is for businesses who makes several millions in surplus profit, and even then, I think there is better charities than a church.

[annie24]

Quit and start your own business. Your grandmother sounds like a bad businessperson. Giving away money to the church that could be used to reinvest or at least give employees a better payroll makes absolutely no sense. Charity is for businesses who makes several millions in surplus profit, and even then, I think there is better charities than a church.

 

well, i wonder if she gets some sort of tax deduction by giving away a huge percentage of the revenue. I don't know US business tax laws all that well, but it is just a hunch of mine. that she is getting many deductions.

 

but of course, i can only speculate, i don't know what her numbers are and how that breaks down for taxes.

[Hermes]

I think there are better charities than a church

 

I entirely agree, Intense (from Norway).

 

Hermes

[hexaemeron]

I read this and literally cringed. There is no way to have this conversation where someone is not going to get hurt feelings. But I absolutely agree with you. That is absurd and I would mention it, absolutely.

[NightLily]

I think considering all you are sacrificing for the family business, it is somewhat strange that it was never mentioned how much of the profits go elsewhere.

 

Regardless, your long hours aren't going to go far if the business is not managed well (don't know how large the tax break is, but based on the OP, it sounds like this has to do with her beliefs vs. business ideas). When the business becomes more successful she might just give more money away in the same ratio? You can't change her, but try to separate family from business right now.. if you don't think she is a good boss, find another job I think.