How Tax Reform Could Effectively Destroy This $6,332 Tax Deduction for Millions

Many people have looked forward all year to seeing what impact the new tax laws will have on their 2018 tax returns. With lower tax rates, higher standard deductions, and a host of other important changes, there will be many winners -- and some losers -- from the tax reform measures that lawmakers passed in late 2017.

Yet there's one group that's highly concerned about potential unintended consequences of tax reform. Nothing happened to change the itemized deduction for charitable contributions, but the increase in the standard deduction has charitable organizations worried that if taxpayers don't get any additional benefit from itemizing, they won't have the same financial incentive to keep giving money. That in turn could wreak havoc with charities' budgets.

Donations to charity and your taxes

For years, the federal government has rewarded those who make donations to charitable organizations that have passed IRS muster. Those organizations that demonstrate a commitment to a religious, education, scientific, or literary purpose can apply with the IRS for tax-exempt status as what's known as a 501(c)(3) organization. That enables most donors to write off their donations as itemized deductions, with generous maximum limits of 50% of adjusted gross income for the vast majority of taxpayers.

Traditionally, that's been a huge incentive to get people to give. In 2016, the most recent year for which IRS data is available, nearly 37 million taxpayers included charitable donations on their schedule of itemized deductions. Those gifts approached $234 billion in total, working out to an average deduction of $6,332 per return.

When you look closely at exactly how people donated, more than two-thirds of deductible donations came in the form of cash or a check. That left just a third to come in the form of other gifts. That includes not only in-kind gifts of non-perishable food items, apparel, or automobiles, but also gifts of stock and other appreciated investments. The benefit of simple cash gifts is that there's very little documentation required, whereas in-kind gifts require anything from a simple acknowledgment from the charity in question to a formal appraisal for large donations.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/taxes/how-tax-reform-could-effectively-destroy-this-dollar6332-tax-deduction-for-millions/ar-BBSb99x?li=BBnbfcN

Isn't altruism not a tax break the reason one should give to charity? That said I'm skeptical about this so called tax reform.