Opinion: Nonprofit Groups ‘Uncharitable’ for Opposing Deduction Cap

A Washington Post column takes leaders of the nonprofit world to task for their opposition to capping higher earners’ charitable tax deductions to help finance a health-care overhaul.

The columnist E.J. Dionne notes that the Council on Foundations, the American Association of Museums, and the American Institute for Cancer Research have been lobbying against a plan by some senators to maintain the current 35 percent deduction for families earning more than $370,000 as opposed to letting it rise as scheduled to 39.6 percent in 2011.

“There’s precious little evidence that this small tax change would dent charitable giving,” Mr. Dionne writes, adding, “If even groups whose very mission is public-spirited can’t take an exceedingly modest risk to extend health coverage, how can we expect anybody else to pay a little more for a moral imperative?”

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