Donations to charities decreasing

Reposted from the Oxfofd Press http://www.oxfordpress.com/news/oxford-news/donations-to-charities-decreasing-1281069.htm

By Cornelius Frolik and Rick McCrabb, Staff Writers

In 2009, Ohio taxpayers
who reported earning $200,000 or more accounted for about 1.8 percent of all federal tax returns, according to the IRS. But those tax filers accounted for about 28 percent of the charitable contributions reported to the federal government — about $1.21 billion.

Espy said donors make contributions based on their “pocketbooks,” and the number of high-income taxpayers and their earnings fell considerably during the recession.

As a result of large decreases in their gross adjusted incomes and the overall number of filings, charitable contributions by Ohio taxpayers earning $200,000 or more fell 37 percent from 2007 to 2009, according to tax data. Meanwhile, contributions by taxpayers earning $100,000 or less fell by only 8.5 percent during that time.

Janet Kasler, director
of knowledge management with the Grantmakers
Forum, said one reason why there were larger decreases in the amount of donations by wealthier
individuals was because they rely more on the stock market and their investments to determine how much they give.

The wealthy often contribute appreciated stock or mutual fund shares to charity because they can deduct the contributions on their taxes and do not have to pay capital gains taxes.

A June report by the Giving USA Foundation found that all types of charitable contributions were up about 2.1 percent in 2010 after two years of declines.