(Cross-posted on The League of Bearded Catholics blog)
Hello, is this thing on?
*Harrumph*… perhaps I was busy trimming my beard, or maybe my nose hair (which requires far greater concentration), but I seem to have completely missed out on any national conversation or debate over this, which I'm sure must have been vocal and abundant. Far be it that anyone should get all worked up over such a trivial matter, but in looking over the instructions for the IRS Form 1040, I recently found the following;
Expiring tax benefits.
The following benefits are scheduled to expire and will not be available for 2010.
… The exclusion from income of qualified charitable distributions
Tax-deductible charitable contributions are… just gone? In the words of my old Building-and-Loan pal, George Bailey… "Do you realize what this means?"
Did I read this wrong? Am I dreaming?
UPDATE: So, a couple of knowledgable commenters have pointed out that, unlike the "charitable tax deduction", the "exclusion from income" is limited to direct contributions of things like IRAs to charitiy. So, a follow up question: how will this affect charities and donors? How greatly do charitable organizations count on this sort of funding?
Thanks for the combox clarification, by the way. It doesn;t sound as dire as I had imagined.