New Tax Bills Could Jeopardize Orchestras
To pass tax reform before year-end, both the House and Senate recently passed separate but similar tax bills. Unfortunately, both versions of the tax bill would have a negative impact on charitable giving.
Because both the House and Senate tax bills propose doubling the standard deduction, access to specific incentives for income tax deductions of gifts to charity become severely limited to only the top five percent of taxpayers who itemize their deductions. The charitable sector had actively supported the idea of a
Universal Charitable Deduction so that the incentive to give to charities would be available to both itemizers and non-itemizers. However, Universal Charitable Deduction proposals offered by Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC) and James Lankford (R-OK) never made it into the final bill nor were given an opportunity for a floor vote.
Unfortunately, the nonpartisan
Tax Policy Center estimates that charities, including orchestras, could see a staggering loss of up to $20 billion annually as a result of this tax policy change.
Because the House and Senate passed bills that are not the same, they now need to work out these differences. So tax reform is not over yet. That means there is still time to act.
The simplest and best way is to telephone your Congressmember and Senators.
- Call the Capitol switchboard (202-224-3121) and follow the prompts to be connected with the office where you want to leave a message. It will take about two-minutes.
- To find out who your Congressmember is, click here and input your orchestra's (or your) zip code. To contact Senators Feinstein and Harris, click here.
- Once connected, identify yourself as a someone who lives and/or works in their district and let them know you oppose the tax bill.
Other Areas of Concern
Here is a preliminary summary of some of the other provisions in addition to the expected reduction in charitable itemizers that impact musicians and the cultural sector.
| US House Bill |
US Senate Bill |
Eliminates the performing artists' business deduction
|
No such elimination |
Eliminates the $250 deduction for teacher supplies and instructional materials
|
Doubles the same provision to $500
|
Reduces estate and gift taxes by doubling theexemption and then ultimately fully repealing theestate tax (historically a generator of major charitable gifts)
|
Reduces estate tax by doubling the exemption
|
Repeals lifetime education credits, tax deduction forinterest on student loans, and tuition waivers from income for graduate and PhD students
|
No such elimination |
You can see a detailed comparison of the House and Senate bills
here.
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