On 10/24/07, Anthony wikimail@inbox.org wrote:
On 10/24/07, Gregory Maxwell gmaxwell@gmail.com wrote:
On 10/24/07, Sebastian Moleski sebmol@gmail.com wrote:
This incentive of course gets stronger the higher the individual tax rate is. The top tax rate in the United States in 2006 was 35% but you had to make at least $336,551 to fall into that bracket
*nit: Thats also the number for the whole household income of married couple filing jointly, so it's arguable to half that number.
*second nit. Those in the 35% backet are most likely to have hit the 3% phaseout rule for their itemized deductions, in which case they won't get the full 35% deduction.
Nevermind. Everyone in the 35% backet is subject to the 3% phaseout rule, so you can *never* get 35% back for a charitable contribution (*). The maximum benefit from a charitable deduction would probably come from those paying AMT, who'd possibly get 26 or 28%, but AMT has its own phaseout rules, so I'm not completely sure about that.
See, charitable deductions of WMF donations are even complicated in the United States. "some donors...can [deduct something], sometimes, to some extent".
(*) I think. Maybe there's some credit somewhere that you'd wind up getting a double-benefit from or something. I doubt it, but US tax law is so screwed up I'm not willing to make such a broad statement on a public forum.