Charities will suffer in 2018

I've written my usual tax-deductible checks to nonprofits in the past couple of weeks, knowing that 2017 may be the last year that nonprofit charities will see a year-end windfall from taxpayers hoping to do some good while reducing their own tax liability.

The recently passed Republican tax bill raises the standard deduction to a level ($12,200 for single filers and $24,400 for joint filers) that will be higher than the vast majority of taxpayer/donors will have in itemized deductions. (A family with an annual income of $100,000 would need charitable deductions of nearly 25 percent of gross incomes to make it worthwhile to deduct.) Thus, few taxpayers will submit itemized deductions.

Advocates of the tax bill think that's a good thing: Taxes will be simpler for most people. Identifying and documenting every charitable donation we make over a year is challenging. The church provides us an itemized list, but other donations to favorite charities or memorial gifts to churches and other charities can be harder to track down. So, yes, tax preparation will be somewhat simpler for 2018.

For charities, however, the simplification of the tax bill will bring a great cost. Without the incentive of a tax deduction, many small donors (giving $25 or $100 or even $1,000 to a charity) will decide not to bother. For nonprofits (a field that employed me the past eight years), small donations are lifeblood. Without those small donations, nonprofit budgets will be decimated. All the good things that nonprofits do in the community will be jeopardized. Nonprofits struggle as it is to attract enough revenue in donations, grants or other resources just to continue their work. Take away tax deductible charitable donations, and many nonprofits will shrink or close up shop.

And that would be a death blow to the moral fiber of communities as poverty, homelessness and hunger swamp society without the dike of charitable donations.