September 11, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
“It seems absurd, at this late date, to have to defend the obvious merits of tax deductions for charitable donations,” writes Lee Rosenbaum on Culturegrrl.
Ms. Rosenbaum, a freelance cultural reporter, takes umbrage at an article in The New York Times that decries charitable contributions for arts groups. Ms. Rosenbaum says the reporter, Stephanie Strom, “looks with favor” on social-service groups including the Salvation Army and America’s Second Harvest and she “casts cold prose on tax-deductible benefactions for cultural institutions, hospitals and stem cell research.”
While Ms. Rosenbaum acknowledges that it’s possible a majority of Americans would not favor “direct tax-dollar allocations” for some cultural groups, she argues that if such groups were denied tax-deductible status for gifts, organizations would lose their appeal for donors. The groups would then require more government aid and might fold when such support failed to appear.
“The bottom line is that charitable deductions are a good deal not just for the donors but, even more so, for the general public,” she writes.
Do you think donors should get a tax break for gifts to arts groups? Share your thoughts by clicking on the comment link below.
