They won't be getting it from me anymore.
"Old-line charities feel pinch of Marathon giving; Many area donors focus on victims of attacks" by Peter Schworm | Globe Staff, May 13, 2013
When word came that the Walk for Hunger, a powerhouse fund-raising event held last week for Project Bread, had fallen well short of its goal, the nonprofit community took quick notice. With its own charity walk coming up, the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Massachusetts quickly sent out an urgent e-mail to a few thousand supporters.
“Please Don’t Let This Happen To Us!” it urged in capital letters.
The unusually blunt appeal reflects the challenges nonprofits face after last month’s Boston Marathon bombings, from concerns over participating in large public events to fears of “charity fatigue” amid the overwhelming charitable response to victims of the attack.
Related: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly About the Boston Marathon Bombings
Support for One Fund Boston, the primary relief effort that has raised nearly $30 million donations and pledges, has “sucked all the oxygen from the fund-raising air,” said Peter Lowy, publisher of massnonprofit.org, a news service for the nonprofit sector....
Related:
"nonprofits provide new ways for corporations and individuals to influence"
That's why my monied mouthpiece loves nonprofits.
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I should set up a charity for myself.
"Charities fear new tax rules’ effect on giving; Others sayvalue of deductions has risen for wealthy" by Stephen Ohlemacher | Associated Press, January 17, 2013
WASHINGTON — Charities and nonprofit organizations are worried that new limits on tax deductions for high earners will hurt donations just as charitable giving is starting to rebound from the depths of the recession.
Related: Sunday Globe Specials: Fiscal Cliff Fraud
Shouldn't be much of a worry.
Btw, only the Jewish charities bounced back rather quickly.
Experts doubt the new limits on deductions will have much impact on giving, but some major nonprofit organizations fear they are a sign that the charitable deduction is no longer sacrosanct on Capitol Hill....
The limits on deductions are part of the new tax law Congress passed on New Year’s Day. They reduce the value of all itemized deductions for individuals making more than $250,000 and married couples making more than $300,000. Advocates are concerned the limits will reduce the tax incentive for people to make donations to charities and nonprofits such as religious institutions, colleges, and groups that help the poor.
‘‘The charitable deduction incentive is different than any other deduction or credit in the tax code,’’ said Sandra Swirski, executive director of the Alliance for Charitable Reform, which lobbies on behalf of donors and private foundations. That’s because the deduction encourages people to give away income, while other deductions and credits encourage people to buy things they can then write off, she noted.
Charitable giving in the United States increased in 2010 and 2011, according to the latest data. But it has yet to return to pre-recession levels, according to data from the Giving USA Foundation and the Indiana University School of Philanthropy. Charitable giving by individuals, foundations, and corporations topped $298 billion in 2011. In 2007, it was $337 billion, in inflation-adjusted dollars.
The new tax provision is a revival of the ‘‘Pease’’ limitation, first enacted in 1990 but phased out in 2010. It is named after a deceased congressman, Representative Donald Pease, an Ohio Democrat who wrote the measure.
Specialists say there is no evidence that the limitation reduced charitable giving in the past, and no reason to think it will have much of an impact going forward.
Charitable giving steadily increased in the 1990s, when the economy flourished.
One analysis estimates that, on balance, charitable giving will increase slightly because of the new tax law. That’s because high earners facing the increased tax rates have more incentive to seek deductions, and those deductions become more valuable.
The new law increases the top income tax rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent on taxable income above $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for married couples. It also increases the top tax rate on long-term capital gains for taxpayers with incomes above those thresholds.
Both provisions increase incentives for people to make charitable donations, according to the analysis of the law by the Urban Institute Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy.
For example, if a married couple has a top income tax rate of 35 percent, a $1 deduction will lower their tax bill by 35 cents. If that same couple has a top tax rate of 39.6 percent, a $1 deduction will lower their tax bill by nearly 40 cents, making the deduction more valuable.
Similarly, the higher tax rate on capital gains increases the incentive to donate securities to charity as a way to avoid those taxes, said Eugene Steuerle, a fellow at the Urban Institute who worked on the analysis.
The Pease limitation should have a negligible impact on charitable giving because it is based on income, not on the amount of deductions, he said.
Nevertheless, nonprofits and charities are wary of any provision that could limit the charitable deduction....
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Related:
Combined Jewish Philanthropies aims for record goal
Giving away millions with good cause
My Jewish media also tells me you like to give in other ways, too:
"Despite what they say, voters favor local taxes" by Hannah Dreier |
Associated Press, November 15, 2012
SACRAMENTO — When it comes to new taxes, voters tend to say
government should ask for money from somebody else, like the rich. But
that doesn’t always hold true, especially on the local level.
During last week’s elections, voters across the country opted to
raise taxes to help their cities, counties, and school districts.
‘‘I’m OK with being taxed for making sure we don’t go under and
people are taken care of,’’ said Elizabeth Boyd, 35, an independent
voter in Sacramento. ‘‘I think it’s really good for us to pay for
schools and make sure they’re kept open and teachers aren’t being laid
off for ridiculous reasons.’’
They said that here, we still got the cuts, and found out later the taxes were raised to service debt interest to banks.
In California, 171 of the 240 local tax and bond measures on the Nov.
6 ballot won approval, a 71 percent pass rate. Those increases came in
addition to voters passing statewide tax hikes championed by Governor
Jerry Brown. Ohio voters approved all local library taxes and a majority
of local school bonds.
Voters in Alabama, Oklahoma, and Colorado were among those also passing local tax increases.
Statewide tax measures did not fare as well. They failed in three of
the five states where they were on the ballot. Even in California,
statewide tax increases have failed far more often than they have
passed.
Local revenue measures generally do better than statewide tax hikes,
in part because voters feel more assured about how the money will be
spent.
Then the AmeriKan people really are stoo-pid.
Antitax activists warn that voters who approved new fees will come to regret it.
Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association,
said people will ‘‘get sticker shock as to the total amount of tax
burden they have. When you add them all up, they are going to start to
wonder, ‘What hit us?’ ’’
He says some will come to realize ‘‘it would have been better to adopt certain reforms.’’
Voters seem to agree in theory, if not in practice.
National exit polling after last week’s elections showed that only 1
in 10 would welcome new income taxes for all Americans. And half of the
electorate said the wealthy should pay more.
The ‘‘tax the other guy’’ mentality is dominant in polling in even in
the most cash-strapped states, according to a 2010 study by the Pew
Center on the States and the Public Policy Institute of California.
Despite those survey results, voters tend to have a more favorable
opinion about increasing taxes when they can see that the extra revenue
will benefit their community directly....
And while a slew of voter-approved tax increases in a state such as
California, where progressives have a stranglehold on politics at all
levels, may not come as a shock, similar behavior in more conservative
places is perhaps more telling....
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Also see:
Charity groups lobby against changes to deductions
Uncertainty boosts donations at the end of 2012
I have nothing left to give.
