While legislators pay lip service to the importance of charities, in recent years they have failed to adopt policies to ensure that charities get what they need to do their work. The first threat has to do with the availability of the charitable deduction. Taxpayers who claim the standard deduction — 70 percent of all taxpayers — get no additional tax benefits for their charitable giving. Charities are particularly concerned about this expansion of non-itemizers because it would include many larger donors who tend to be mindful of the tax consequences of their gifts. A recent report by the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy estimates that charities could lose as much as $13 billion in donations if the standard deduction is increased.

Source: New York Times November 26, 2017 23:48 UTC