Patagonia founder's big donation potentially saves him over $1 billion in taxes -- and shows how the wealthy aren't subject to the same rules as the rest of us

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

52% : Bloomberg estimates that the capital gains tax on the donation could have come in at more than $700 million.
51% : "The argument for a change in tax policy to implement a gift tax for 501(c)(4)s is that not only can an individual donate unlimited -- they can continue to grow tax free for generations," Miller said.
46% : Completely free of taxes and all used for political purposes.
45% : But Chouinard's donations illustrate how the ultra-wealthy, even when championing big causes, fall out of the realm of taxation, which means that the public purse -- the one that pays for roads and airports and healthcare subsidies -- could be deprived of around a billion dollars in tax revenue, in Patagonia's case.
43% : "Regardless of how generous the donor is, they shouldn't be able to entirely opt out of taxes.
43% : When it comes to why Chouinard isn't paying much in taxes, "there's a simple legal answer -- because he does not need to," Steve Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, told Insider.
41% : What wasn't heralded so loudly: He could be avoiding more than a billion dollars in taxes while doing so.
39% : A Patagonia spokesperson told Insider the Chouinard family did not ask to create a company structure to avoid taxes.

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