Journal article
The Sensitivity of Charitable Giving to the Timing and Salience of Tax Credits
A Payne, Ross Hickey, Bradley Minaker
National Tax Journal | Nta-tia National Tax Association | Published : 2019
Abstract
This paper explores the role of the timing and salience of tax incentives on reported tax filer giving. We find that moving the timing of reporting of gifts on one's tax returns closer to the timing of giving increases average donations by approximately 9 percentage points. We discuss the policy implications of our results along with the implications for our understanding of the tax price elasticity of charitable giving.
Grants
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank Stacy Dickert-Conlin, Jonathan Goupille, David Reinstein, Andreas Madestam, Michael Veall, Katherine Cuff, Rose-Anne Devlin, Federico Revelli, and Mario Jametti, as well as participants of McMaster's seminar series, Laurier's seminar series, University of Turin's seminar series, Canadian Economics Association 2015 Annual Meetings, Canadian Public Economics Group 2015 Annual Meetings, ASSA 2016 Meetings, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona Workshop on Economics of Taxation, 14th Journees Louis-Andre-Gerard-Varet, Waterloo Economics PhD Conference, and members of the National Tax Association for helpful comments on earlier drafts. All authors gratefully acknowledge the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada for financial support and the staff at the Public Economics Data Analysis Laboratory at McMaster University for their assistance.