Explainer: the charitable tax deduction
Every year, I have to fork a percentage of my taxable income over to the Internal Revenue Service. Taxes! But before I do that, I might consider taking advantage of the charitable tax deduction.
I might give away a car, or a boat, or some of my clothes, or jewelry. I might give away some stocks or bonds … or I could just keep it simple and hand over some cash.
And if I give $1,000 to charity, that reduces my taxable income by … $1,000. Because there’s less for the government to tax, I pay less in taxes.
Plus, our tax system puts us into tax brackets. The more taxable income we make each year, the higher the bracket and the higher the percentage of that income that goes to the IRS. Say you’re quite wealthy, and you’re in the top tax bracket, you give away a bunch of money, which reduces your taxable income.
Give away enough, and you could shrink your taxable income enough to put you in a lower bracket. Which means all the rest of your money will be taxed at a lower rate.
It’s one of the reasons why Americans are such big donors to charity, and why come tax time, wealthy people write some very big checks.