Is 2017 tax law responsible for declining share of U.S. charitable donors? - PBS NewsHour

Lisa Desjardins:

We're seeing those uneven giving trends even in a robust economy, and that's leading many nonprofit leaders to worry as we head into 2020.

Stacy Palmer, editor of "The Chronicle of Philanthropy," is here to explain more.

And let's start with this tax change itself. Essentially, fewer people are claiming tax deductions because of their charitable donations?

Stacy Palmer:

Right.

One of the things that Congress did when they changed the law is, they said, let's make it simpler to fill out your tax form. So they doubled the standard deduction. That means that very few people itemize anymore. Only about 8 percent of Americans itemize, and that means those people all have access to the charitable deduction.

But everybody else doesn't, because they're not taking a write-off for anything. And so something that was intended to simplify the tax system ended up having this inadvertent affect on charities and giving. So many people just don't have access to that charitable deduction anymore.


Lisa Desjardins:

Essentially, the deduction used to be $12,000 for a couple, for two people, and now it's $24,000. ($24,400 for 2019)

(snip)

Lisa Desjardins:

OK.

So then the question is, now there are fewer people who can deduct, who get a tax benefit from giving to charity, how is that affecting charities? Are they see a big change in their donations?

Stacy Palmer:

Charities think they are, especially small, mid-size groups. They say they're feeling the pain more than big organizations.

And part of this is because people who are fairly wealthy, they can still itemize and get that tax deduction. But most middle-class to middle-class, affluent people, those are the people who lost that deduction. And they're the ones who don't have any incentive to give because of taxes.

Now, there are lots of other reasons people give or choose to give, but there's estimates that as much as $20 billion might have been lost to charities in a year because of this tax change.

Now, we should remember too Americans give more than $425 billion. So $20 billion is important, but they're still giving. People are still giving very generously. So it's not that the entire charity sector has been hit by this tax change.

More..

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-fewer-americans-are-donating-to-charity

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For the past two weeks I have been getting almost daily emails from both public TV and public radio. (Also from the Democrats, and Act Blue..) And I have already gave them but now, when I got an email with the clock ticking: only 3 hrs 40 min, decided to give more.

As it happened, we had many medical expenses this past year so were already above $27,000 (seniors get extra) and this last minute donation makes me feel good.