Tax Policy and Philanthropy
A Primer on the Empirical Evidence for the United States and Its Implications
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4187964 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jon Bakija (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 80 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 557-584 |
| Publication date | 2013-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0037-783X • E-ISSN: 1944-768X |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/sor.2013.0004 |
| OpenAlex | W1536177850 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
federal and state tax policies in the united states offer substantial incentives to donate to charity. The federal income tax and most state income taxes give taxpayers the choice between an itemized deduction for expenditures such as charitable donations, mortgage inter-est, and state and local taxes, or a standard deduction, which at the federal level amounts to $12,200 for married taxpayers filing joint returns and $6,100 for single taxpayers in 2013. Among those who choose to item-ize, each additional dollar that is donated reduces income tax liability by one dollar times the taxpayer’s marginal tax rate (that is, the income tax rate applying to the last dollar of taxable income), which in the federal income tax in 2013 can be as high as 39.6 percent. In addition, when someone donates an asset that has appreciated in value, he or she avoids any federal and state personal income taxes that would otherwise have been due on the asset’s capital gain (the increase in asset’s value since it was originally purchased), had the owner eventually sold the asset before
Donation · Economic growth · Economics · Empirical evidence · Gross income · Incentive · Income tax · Market economy · Microeconomics · Public economics · Revenue · State income tax · Subsidy · Tax credit · Tax deduction · Tax incentive · Tax reform · Tax revenue · Finance · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Taxation and Compliance Studies
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |