July 15, 1999 | Read Time: 1 minute
New statistics released by the Internal Revenue Service show that deductions claimed for charitable contributions rose from $86.2-billion in 1996 to an estimated $95.8-billion in 1997, an increase of 11.2 per cent. The jump was not as high as the 14.9-per-cent rise registered from 1995 to 1996, but it was the second-largest increase of the 1990s.
The I.R.S. statistics show that the percentage of individual returns that included write-offs for donations edged up in 1997 to 26.6 per cent of all returns. The average contribution claimed on each return rose from $2,727 in 1996 to $2,944 in 1997. The figure was $1,958 in 1990 and $2,156 in 1992.
The I.R.S., which will revise the statistics in coming months before making them final, published the data in its Statistics of Income Bulletin for spring 1999. The report may be obtained for $19 a copy from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh 15250-7954.
