Opinion: Weighing the Worth of the Charitable Deduction

A Republican economist examines the debate over proposed changes to charitable tax breaks in an online opinion piece for The New York Times.

In a post for the Times’ Economix blog, Bruce Bartlett, who held policy roles in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, summarizes the history of the charitable deduction, its cost to the federal treasury, and current arguments for and against altering it.

Noting that current policy confers far greater benefits on wealthy donors, who make the bulk of charity gifts and can deduct them at a higher rate, Mr. Bartlett suggests converting the deduction to a tax credit, applied to tax liability rather than earnings. “This would equalize the tax reward across incomes and could be done in a way that raised net revenue to pay for rate reductions,” he writes.

Read a Chronicle of Philanthropy article about the debate in Congress over the charitable deduction.