In Friday’s (12/2) Financial Times, Kathryn Tully writes, “Jesse Rosen, president and chief executive of the League of American Orchestras, worries about the impact that threatened changes to tax breaks for charitable giving in the US will have on his members’ fundraising. Twenty per cent of the income of symphony orchestras comes from private individual donations. In fact, individual gifts have become a necessity as ticket sales and federal and state funding have slumped. ‘They’re an increasingly important revenue stream for symphony orchestras at a moment when there’s tremendous strain in the economy, so anything that weakens the incentive to give is a potential threat,’ Rosen says. … President Barack Obama’s proposed American Jobs Act would cut the income tax deduction that the wealthiest Americans earning more than $200,000 can claim against charitable donations from 35 per cent (the top rate of federal income tax) to 28 per cent. The act is currently stalled in Congress, but as deficit reduction talks continue, potential cuts to charitable gift deductions remain on the table. … A study by the Tax Policy Center, a research group based in Washington DC, estimated that the proposed changes could cost charities $1.7bn-$3.2bn a year. … ‘This tax break is not about rewarding wealth, but serving the public good,’ [Rosen] says. ‘That’s what non-profits are all about.’ ”
Posted December 2, 2011
