Your Charitable Contributions and your feelings about how they are Taxed

[Mike 03]

One thing that has bothered me for a few years is how some contributions are deductible and others are not.

There are the donations that should definitely be deductible, like donations to cancer societies, animal shelters, etc...

But then there are these other major loopholes, where you might want to help (and do), but it hurts.

On one level I understand this: You may give some money to someone in need and neither you nor that person want any record of it, or what it went to. For example, if you give someone five hundred dollars to pay for psychotropic medications for bipolar disorder or something like that for one month to get them through a hard time. Or you meet someone online who lost everything during Hurricane Katrina and you send her some money to get her through a few hard months but there is no way to record that or get tax relief from it.

[customerserviceguy]

1. Other

full deductions for any charitable contributions that are NOT related to religion!

[Hello_Kitty]

2. I wouldn't be that strict

But I would say that only those activities that relate directly to helping the community in some way should be deductible. Nothing for the church itself, or its members (unless they are needy).

[marybourg]

6. Other

1. Because of generous itemized deductions, relatively few working and middle class people itemize (except in very high property tax states)anyway.

2. If giving to anybody were to become tax-deductible, it would take about 30 seconds before I started giving to my brother-in-law and he to me and we would each deduct that gift up to the allowable limit. So that's patently unworkable. That's why we *have* 501C3 qualifying of charities.

If you know someone with a real need, refer him to your local Community Fund (an organization that has qualified as a bona fide charity and which exists to give help to local people in legitimate need)and make a (theoretically - deductible) donation to them, or make a personal gift to the person. If no local Community Fund exists in your area, get together with a few like-minded people and start one.

[El Supremo]

3. Other: The contributions should not be constrained by the standard deduction.

My state allows all charitable contributions to be deducted. The Fed should do the same thing.

[TBF]

4. Well, I didn't vote because I'm not sure how it would affect the recipient.

If I would give someone cash to meet a medical deductible, would that taxed as a gift? Would they have to report it as income?

[rgbecker]

5. There should be no tax consequences to donating or not!

The Gov'ment should stay out of the business of making judgments about which donations should be deductible. The argument that donations would dry up don't realize that these donations are made even though 90-65% of the donation is not reimbursed by the tax deduction. People want to give to their favorite charity or cause and will and the government should stay out of deciding which benefit from the IRS policy.

Also, why is the government supporting borrowing to buy a house, but gives no benefit to those who save and buy using cash. The decision to borrow to buy a house should be made on its own merits and not be influenced by the IRS.

The whole of schedule A should be reduced to the local RE, and income tax deduction.

A progressive can have these views so don't be calling me a libertarian.

[Cerridwen]

7. The tax code has a whole lotta "carrots" and "sticks" in it to influence

people's behavior.

About 6 years after the banks managed to get the caps off interest, the personal interest deductions went away.

Not too long ago you could claim your boyfriend's or girlfriend's child(ren) as dependent(s) if you paid X% toward their support. It's now blood relatives (of certain degree) or by marriage only.

The code is designed and influenced by politics of the day rather than economics.

[Booster]

8. I chose "other" because I think the time you give to a

charitable organization should be deductible, but I also think lessened so you can help people one-on-one. For instance if I decided to pick a homeless person and give them $100 a month then I should be able to deduct that - I think more people would help that way.