Protect America’s Strong Tradition of Giving to the Safety Net

As a clinic in the healthcare safety net, you are providing much needed access to health care services for medically underserved individuals, children and families in Colorado.  While ClinicNET’s affiliates are diverse in model, most are nonprofit organizations that do not receive federal funds and rely on charitable donations to support the critical work they do on a daily basis.

As the Administration and Congress take up tax reform, deficit reduction and the fiscal cliff, we want to urge them not to impose any limit or cap on the charitable deduction, including the proposed cap limiting all itemized deductions at 28 percent for certain taxpayers.   Many taxpayers who itemize take fixed cost deductions first -- such as state and local taxes and mortgage interest -- and a cap would leave them little to no room to deduct their charitable contributions.

The charitable deduction is different than other itemized deductions in that it encourages individuals to give away a portion of their income to those in need. It rewards a selfless act, and it encourages taxpayers to give more to charities than they would otherwise have given.   People give to worthwhile causes for many reasons—incentives such as tax deductions being among them. Tax incentives make more and larger gifts possible, and those incentives do have an impact on donors.

According to a 2012 report by the Center for Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University, nonprofit employment represents 10.1 percent of total employment in the United States in 2010, with total employees numbering 10.7 million. Keeping charitable deductions at the current rate allows the middle class, as well as those who are more privileged, to participate in maintaining and creating jobs in safety net careers, which offer critical services to local communities and address urgent needs on a broader, national basis.

America’s economic recovery requires a strong philanthropic sector whose role as an investor in innovation and supporter of safety net services is more important than ever for a faster, sustainable economic recovery.   Now is the time to maintain incentives to support the crucial work of the nonprofit community.

Please take the time to contact Colorado's Congressional delegation. Click here to find out how to take action and for more information.