Nonprofits Urged to Lobby Against Limits on Charity Tax Breaks

Independent Sector, a coalition of charities and foundations, is calling on its members to lobby against a proposal by President Obama that would limit tax breaks for charitable gifts.

Diana Aviv, Independent Sector’s chief executive, in a letter sent Wednesday, strongly encouraged nonprofits to contact federal lawmakers and ask them to protect the charitable deduction.

In the letter, Ms. Aviv urged nonprofits to focus on the lawmakers who sit on the committees that draft tax policies.

“Let them know that your organization depends on the charitable gifts that this tax incentive generates,” Ms. Aviv wrote.

She also noted that a bipartisan group of senators plans to introduce legislation in May that could include more substantial changes, such as eliminating the charitable tax deduction altogether and replacing it with a 12-percent credit for charitable gifts that exceed 2 percent of a donor’s adjusted gross income.

This plan was first introduced last year by President Obama’s deficit-reduction commission.

“Very little is known about how this proposed change might affect charitable giving, and it would not be responsible to adopt this significant policy change until its effects are clearly understood,” Ms. Aviv wrote.