GOP tax law a one-two punch to charities and American giving

By DAVID ROGERS 01/13/2018 07:02 AM EST

Back in 2011, when Republicans still talked about deficits, a bipartisan budget commission proposed to save tens of billions a year by revamping the charitable deduction for federal income taxes.

The plan was to substitute a 12 percent tax credit available only to those who gave more than 2 percent of their adjusted gross income. The precise numbers were subject to fine-tuning, but the framework set three goals: lower the deficit, put middle-class donors on more equal footing with the wealthy and establish some minimum standard for generosity to qualify for a tax benefit. This being Washington, the idea went nowhere. But what’s surprising now is how far Republicans are taking the country in the very opposite direction.

For the first time in their lives, millions of middle-class donors will be effectively shut out from claiming any charitable deduction under the GOP’s new tax law. At the same time, the wealthy will get a still larger share of the tax benefit, even when sacrificing a smaller share of their income.

Indeed, the few concessions by tax writers to promote charitable giving are aimed at the very high end of the income scale. The end result is a law that does more to promote gifts to pay for a grandchild’s private schooling than it does to encourage the same grandparents to go outside their family and give to the local Boys & Girls Club.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/13/gop-tax-law-charities-giving-339039