Continuing Debate about Limiting Charitable Contribution Deduction for High-Income Donors

We previously blogged about the Obama Administration’s proposal to limit the availability of itemized deductions for taxpayers with over $250,000 of income, reactions to that proposal from Harvey Dale and Nonprofit Law Prof Blog contributing editor John Colombo, and a study on the likely effects of this proposal.  The debate over the proposal continues, as illustrated by a recent Associated Press report carried on MSNBC.  Besides citing expressions of concern by both donors and nonprofit executives, the article also notes that a recently released Indiana University Center on Philanthropy study indicates that the combination of this proposal and other Obama Administration tax proposals would result in 4.8 percent less giving by high-income households, totaling almost $4 billion.  While a relatively small amount when compared to total charitable giving, and smaller decline that the decline expected because of current economic conditions, it still suggests a measurable effect for those charities who rely significantly on gifts from such households.

LHM