[Foundation-l] Fwd: The question of tax-deductible donations

[Anthony]

On 10/24/07, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
> On 10/24/07, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 10/24/07, Sebastian Moleski <sebmol at 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.