Abolishing the Charitable Deduction will cost American charities billions

Over its nearly 100-year history, the charitable deduction has become one of the most time-tested provisions in the Internal Revenue Code. But it has also been a perennial target by people on both ends of the political spectrum who want to eliminate or restrict it.

While economists have long studied the impact of the deduction, they have not reached a clear consensus on how much it matters. A new study, however, along with recently released IRS data make it quite clear that America’s charitable organizations could be hurt greatly if donors lost all or part of the charitable income-tax deduction as lawmakers seek ways to avert the looming “financial cliff.”

The new study of the wealthy and their philanthropy, released last month by Bank of America, asked affluent people (mostly with incomes of $200,000 or more and net assets of at least $1-million) how they might alter their giving if deductions were eliminated.

Just under 50 percent said their giving would remain the same. But nearly 49 percent said they would decrease their giving—and 20 percent of those people said they would “dramatically decrease” their giving. Less than 2 percent said their giving would increase.

Read Financial Impact on American Charity

Excerpts of an article by Robert Sharpe, a fundraising consultant

Tags: charitable deduction, Internal Revenue Code, IRS, tax deduction

This entry was posted in Grantmaking, Philanthropy by Grant Montgomery.