Give to Charity if You Don’t Want to Give Trump Your Tax Dollars

Use Your Tax Dollars for Good This Giving Season

 

Do you have qualms that your taxes may be used to pay for Trump’s wall, or subsidize the fossil fuel industry, or fund a Muslim registry? If you are against how the Trump administration and Republican Congress will spend your hard-earned tax dollars, you can minimize your taxes and do good at the same time. You can do this by donating to nonprofits.

There’s less than a week left to make your year-end tax-deductible donations. The time to act is now.

Voting is not the only way that we participate as citizens. Unlike many other countries, the American tax code gives generous tax deductions to encourage people to give to nonprofits. Nonprofits have a unique role in our society as an alternative or complement to government services. The tax deductions allow taxpayers to lower their taxable income by sending money directly to causes they care about, reducing the taxes they pay, which ultimately are subject to the government’s spending whims.

Many people can reduce their tax bill by roughly a quarter for every dollar they donate. If individuals donated even an additional 3 percent of their adjusted gross income, that would channel $336 billion in more money to charity. And it would take about $84 billion away from Trump. If individuals donated 10 percent of their adjusted gross income, that would raise about $1.2 trillion for nonprofits. And take away about $300 billion from Trump’s uses.

Plus, many employers will match your charitable contributions, making your dollars go even further.

In addition to money, you can also donate property—stocks, houses, cars, art, and household goods and electronics in good shape. And you get tax deductions for these as well.

By donating you both reduce your tax dollars going to Trump while helping directly support causes you are concerned about—health care, equal rights, conservation and the environment, LGBTQ rights, and immigration, to name only a few—that are expected to take a beating under Trump. Since the election, we have seen donations rise for these causes. These causes face the specter of more demand for their services and likely federal budget cuts.

And in addition to national nonprofits, there are thousands of terrific local nonprofits with strong communities of volunteers and donors who fight for these causes every day at a grassroots level.

Donating to nonprofits this Giving Season provides you with a chance to not only make a statement about what kind of country you want to live in, but also to make a difference in helping to make it happen. It’s a chance for you to have a voice on issues that matter to you. And you can have a real impact on the lives of people in your communities. In a way, you can vote again—with your dollars.