In a recent column for Forbes, Howard Husock discusses threats to the charitable deduction and warns against viewing it as “just one more ‘tax expenditure.’”
As the fiscal cliff looms, representatives of U.S. non-profit organizations are circling the wagons to defend the charitable tax deduction from Congressional action to cap or otherwise limit it. Well they should. The $300 billion, highest per capita among OECD nations, in annual philanthropic giving provides the lifeblood for medical research, higher education, the arts and a range of programs that assist and uplift the poor. Even a relatively modest change long-favored by the Obama White House—limiting the tax benefit of a charitable donation to 28 percent of its value, even for those paying higher tax rates—would, it’s been estimated, reduce charitable giving by 1.3 percent, or some $3 billion. An overall cap on tax deductions of all kinds could have even more drastic effects.
Read his full column here.
The Philanthropy Roundtable believes that philanthropic freedom is essential to a free society. For more on preserving the charitable deduction, visit our Philanthropic Freedom page or the Alliance for Charitable Reform website.