Should donations to things like this be tax deductible?

[cm husker]

By allowing a deduction, you are literally making the rest of society subsidize your university's football palace.

If not, how do we get this rule changed? Abolish it? Modify it?


http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2012/07/ducks-to-build-68-million-football-operations-center/1#.UAXbTmFbeSo

[huskernut]

You're right. It's dumb to allow a deduction. Barring a broad reform, maybe deductions could be limited to academics only?

Good luck with that though, CM. All those congresspeople love them some comp tickets when they can get em.

[CornfieldCounty]

I don't think I have ever claimed a donation, and I don't see the need to have one.

[cm husker]

You're right. It's dumb to allow a deduction. Barring a broad reform, maybe deductions could be limited to academics only?

Good luck with that though, CM. All those congresspeople love them some comp tickets when they can get em.

I mean, this is just absurd; a hot tub in his office? really????

and yeah, i'm probably getting nowhere with this, but I'd say all charitable contributions should be eliminated because money is fungible and it's difficult to monitor where the cash is really going. It's possible, but extremely difficult.

[Nishioka]

I don't think the government needs to be in the business of encouraging people to support college athletics by offering tax breaks for those who donate.

Let's save the breaks on charitable donations for donations to actual charities. That means churches and nonprofits and anyone else that wants to run a soup kitchen or hospital, or participate in natural disaster recovery. Not schools who want to redirect 40% of their yearly budgets into payroll (which is what Oregon does - http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindduc...egon_athl.html)

[cm husker]

I don't think the government needs to be in the business of encouraging people to support college athletics by offering tax breaks for those who donate.

Let's save the breaks on charitable donations for donations to actual charities. That means churches and nonprofits and anyone else that wants to run a soup kitchen or hospital, or participate in natural disaster recovery. Not schools who want to redirect 40% of their yearly budgets into payroll (which is what Oregon does - http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindduc...egon_athl.html)

I'm not even sure it should be open to churches to build another wing to the mega complex or to nonprofits to pay huge salaries to employees.

I have done almost zero hard research into the economics of what would happen to those organizations, but my gut tells me subsidizing private donation is a bad decision.

[huskernut]

I would be happy to eliminate the charitable deduction as part of a broad reform, but the non-profit world is entrenched and would fight tooth and nail. And the media would pick it up and say it will result in the deaths of puppies, etc. I just can't see it happening.

[ChitownHusker]

I don't think the government needs to be in the business of encouraging people to support college athletics by offering tax breaks for those who donate.

Let's save the breaks on charitable donations for donations to actual charities. That means churches and nonprofits and anyone else that wants to run a soup kitchen or hospital, or participate in natural disaster recovery. Not schools who want to redirect 40% of their yearly budgets into payroll (which is what Oregon does - http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindduc...egon_athl.html)

This makes sense to me.

[cm husker]

I would be happy to eliminate the charitable deduction as part of a broad reform, but the non-profit world is entrenched and would fight tooth and nail. And the media would pick it up and say it will result in the deaths of puppies, etc. I just can't see it happening.

It's sort of infuriating when you think of it, and fascinating when you really think about it... the way small entrenched interests can pass economic policy that runs contrary to the national interest.

I read about the mohair subsidy in a book called "Naked Economics" (good book), and here's a related article: http://www.jonathanrauch.com/jrauch_...golden_fleece/

Simply amazing.

[Nishioka]

I'm not even sure it should be open to churches to build another wing to the mega complex or to nonprofits to pay huge salaries to employees.

I have done almost zero hard research into the economics of what would happen to those organizations, but my gut tells me subsidizing private donation is a bad decision.

Agreed on that point. Maybe if you can separate the two and the organization can provide a clear accounting of what charitable work they do it would be ok. Say you have larger organizations register a faith-based initiative (Bush blamed: check!) with accounting that is 100% open to the public so we can verify that X% of their donations go to charity work and Y% to upkeep, in addition to the institutional budget they use to build their compounds or whatever it is that they do, and money given on that side is not deductible or is deductible at a significantly lower amount.