ACR NEWSLETTER

Obama’s Mixed Signals Devalue Charity

By Heather Higgins

In every budget President Obama has sent to Congress, he has signaled to the American public that promoting private giving is not his priority: each year he has proposed a cut to the charitable deduction. He didn’t let us down this year, again choosing to devalue charitable giving by proposing to limit the charitable deduction.

Under our current tax code, the charitable deduction is an important incentive for people to give and make charitable investments in their communities. Americans individually gave almost $235 billion in 2010 to fuel the work of charities with a wide variety of missions and purposes, satisfying both the diverse needs and spectrum of solutions to problems in our society. But it is not the only incentive, among which importantly are perceived need and the donors’ own sense of their disposable income.

In this year’s budget proposal, the president added a new twist to the narrative. He included his principles for tax reform in the budget. The “Buffett rule” was one of those principles, which would set a minimum tax of 30% and eliminate all deductions on anyone making $1 million or more, although under the Buffett Rule, the charitable deduction would be the only deduction preserved. The president is sending mixed messages to the charitable community. On one hand, he wants to scale back the charitable deduction for anybody making over $250,000, but on the other hand, he emphasizes its importance by leaving it as the only deduction for those subject to the Buffet rule.

Read more at : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/heather-higgins/obamas-mixed-signals-deva_b_1276752.html