September 24, 1998 | Read Time: 1 minute
Lamar Alexander, the former Tennessee Governor who is again likely to be a Republican Presidential candidate, wants to create an enhanced charitable deduction for donors.
Mr. Alexander wants to double the deduction that taxpayers could claim annually if their charitable gifts for the year exceeded 5 per cent of their incomes.
“We should create a new standard for giving: the half tithe,” Mr. Alexander told an audience at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. “This would encourage support for many organizations that support coaches, Scout masters, church leaders, and others who help parents raise children.”
Mr. Alexander’s idea would cover gifts made to all types of charities. During his failed 1996 Presidential campaign, Mr. Alexander drew criticism from some non-profit organizations when he proposed a new credit that would apply exclusively to donations made to antipoverty groups.
Mr. Alexander, a former U.S. Secretary of Education, said he would pay for an enhanced charitable deduction — and other components of a plan he unveiled to overhaul tax policy — with part of the projected federal revenue surplus expected over the next 10 years.
