There's been a bit of hand-wringing these last few days over whether Obama's proposal to cap tax deductions for the affluent would lead to a big reduction in charitable donations--in his column today, David Brooks writes that, "[I]n its very first budget, the Obama administration raises the cost of charitable giving."
But, according to a recent study by the Tax Policy Center, the measure would only decrease giving by a mere 1.3 percent. Also, as the study points out, the measure wouldn't take effect until 2011, which should further ease concerns about depriving charities of revenue during a recession.
For what it's worth...
--Noam Scheiber