MoistCr1tikal is catching some flak for giving away money to his viewers at the end of his recent live streams — and he isn’t happy with the backlash.
Charles White, aka ‘MoistCr1tkal,’ is a prominent live streamer and YouTuber who’s best known for his humorous deadpan commentary on viral news and pop culture.
During recent broadcasts, White has started giving away money to his viewers. The system is as follows: He asks viewers to fill out a form with the amount of money they want and what they’ll use it for. Then, he’ll pick names at random and give them the cash they requested.
However, a few critics have lashed out at White for doing this, arguing that he’s giving away the money for a “sinister tax write off” — something the streamer vehemently disagrees with.
In fact, White says that it legitimately “hurts” him to see these claims and hit back at the criticism in a biting video on March 31.
“It just shocks me how even something as simple as giving individuals money during streams is now a controversial issue,” he said. “…That legitimately hurts me. I’m not going to try to put up a front where I’m unbothered. I have thick skin, sure, but this actually hurts me.
“I recognize how lucky I got in life, and I just wanna do something nice with it. And then to be attacked, I suppose, by multiple people spamming that kind of sh*t about how, ‘This guy super sucks, he’s just doing this for a tax write off, wake up sheep’ — it’s infuriating.”
(Topic begins at 1:35)
So, are gifts to individuals deductible on your taxes? According to the IRS, the answer is “no.”
“Gifts to individuals are not deductible,” reads a statement on the official IRS website. “Only qualified organizations are eligible to receive tax deductible contributions.”
It’s clear that MoistCr1tikal has had enough of the criticism against him for trying to help out his viewers — but he’s not the only mainstream content creator who’s come under fire for using their fame to help out the less fortunate.
YouTube star MrBeast has famously faced backlash multiple times thanks to his charitable endeavors, such as the time he sparked a viral debate online for paying for 1,000 patients’ cataract surgeries and inadvertently kicked up a storm after paying for 1,000 peoples’ hearing aids.
