WASHINGTON, DC -- The news any given day is filled with warnings of "doom loops," inverted yield rates, and other wonky predictors of a recession. A downturn is likely for 2019, economic cognoscenti say, if not inevitable by 2020, particularly given the drag of the monthlong federal-government shutdown.
NEW BRITAIN, CT -- An opinion article penned by Dave Davison, former president of the American Savings Foundation, encourages indivdual giving, reviews why individuals give to charity, and the discusses the possible affects of the new Federal tax laws on indivdual charitable giving.
HARTFORD, CT -- The residents of Connecticut are the fifth most generous in the nation, according to a new analysis by the financial website WalletHub.
NEW YORK, NY -- Starting this fall, and well into the future, medical students at New York University will get free tuition. In a few years, shiny new facilities will welcome cancer patients in Atlanta and brain researchers at Stanford. The announcements about these developments credit generous philanthropists, but fail to mention who else is footing much of the bill: American taxpayers. Like most charitable giving, health care philanthropy is tax-deductible. When wealthy people give away millions of dollars, their tax bills go down. But that leaves the rest of us either to pick up the slack or go without the investments that our government could have made with those funds.
WASHINGTON, DC -- The accelerating concentration of philanthropic power in the hands of the affluent puts nonprofits at risk and can be checked only by significant tax-law changes, argues the latest in a series of reports and critiques focused on big philanthropy. Nearly a third of itemized charitable contributions in 2015 came from households earning more than $1 million annually — up from just 12 percent in 1995, according to the new report. At the same time, the share of giving by average Americans has been declining for most of the 21st century, sapping the strength of national nonprofits that rely on small donations and don’t attract support from the affluent.
NEW YORK, NY -- The Internal Revenue Service announced today the official estate and gift tax limits for 2019: The estate and gift tax exemption is $11.4 million per individual, up from $11.18 million in 2018. That means an individual can leave $11.4 million to heirs and pay no federal estate or gift tax, while a married couple will be able to shield $22.8 million. The annual gift exclusion amount remains the same at $15,000. For the ultra rich, these numbers represent planning opportunities. For everybody else, they serve as a reminder: Even if you don’t have a taxable estate, you still need an estate plan.