Std Deduction vs Charity

With our house interest payment becoming tiny, and therefore our total tax deductions now crossing over into Standard Deduction territory, I was wondering how that might effect people still contributing to charities.

ie - if the charity deduction no longer counts, vs using the Standard Deduction, are you still inclined to donate ?

BTW - we're a sucker, and pop $25 for any envelope we receive :)

Reply to
ps56k
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It's likely people donate more because they receive a deduction. At least I know I do :). In countries that don't allow a tax deduction, do people give less? The ideal test is a country that made a transition for allowing it to not allowing it, or vice versa.

You can bunch all of your contributions in one year, pay this and next year's property tax this year (then you deduct it all this year).

Reply to
removeps-groups

My charitable conributions as a percentage of income have stayed pretty consistent regardless of whether I was itemizing. Of course, when I was making decent money (and always living in high-tax jurisdictions) the combination of contributions and state income tax was enough to itemize even when I didn't have mortgage interest.

Phil Marti VITA/TCE Volunteer Clarksburg, MD

Reply to
Phil Marti

You definitely should look into the concept of "deduction bunching". Basically, you take the standard and itemized deduction in alternate years, and contrive to take all your deductions in the "itemized" years.

Reply to
JGE

Not all towns allow you to prepay. I know in my town in upstate NY, they can't figure out how to make it work with their software, so out of luck here.

Reply to
bh2os

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