We know people give not solely for the tax deduction, but because they want to support the causes they care about. But today a new study estimates that President Obama’s plan to limit the value of charitable deductions for wealthy people would cost nonprofits at least $2.9-billion and perhaps as much as $5.6-billion.
The change would mean that the wealthiest Americans, those that can write off 35% of their deductions, including those they make to charities, would be limited to writing off 28% of those same deductions. The Council on Foundations and other sector leaders have parted ways with the President on this issue - some of them painfully - saying his drive to limit the incentive to give, especially could not come at a worse time.
Meanwhile, Wall Street, and even the streets of Salt Lake, are full of people calling for more to be done to reduce the country's income disparity, and stop those tax policies that benefit the wealthiest among us. What do you think?
The new research will be presented Friday at a conference by the Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy and was paid for by a $1-million research grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
