Charitable giving in the United States was up overall last year, by about 5 percent over 2019, according to an analysis from the data arm of GivingTuesday, a nonprofit organization that promotes philanthropy. The group’s namesake event is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, which began in 2012 as a day of charity and public service.
An early analysis of this year’s GivingTuesday, on Nov. 30, estimated that donations in the United States increased by 9 percent over last year.
“Americans continue to be highly generous,” Woodrow Rosenbaum, the chief data officer at GivingTuesday, said.
It’s unclear how large an impact the special charitable deduction has had, he said, although the group’s 2020 analysis noted a “small spike” in donations of $300 on Dec. 31. “It’s not that the effect is zero,” Mr. Rosenbaum said of the $300 deduction. Rather, “it was small and difficult to measure.”
In contrast, the group’s analysis showed a clear increase in donations in amounts of $1,200 and $2,400 — amounts that correlate with the size of the federal government’s stimulus payments — in 2020, suggesting the payments played a larger role in charitable giving.
Still, it’s possible that people were unaware of the special deduction when it was first made available last year, but may be prepared to make a gift and take advantage of it this season, Mr. Rosenbaum said. The group’s full analysis of overall giving in 2021 will be available next year.
Here are some questions and answers about charitable deductions:
Will the special tax deduction be available after 2021?
The deduction is temporary and is scheduled to end at the end of 2021 — unless Congress extends it again.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/10/your-money/tax-break-donations.html
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