Incentives for Charity

Searching out our own best interest leads to benevolence towards others, in everyday life and the world of economics. Our best interests, if they are truly good will lead to the betterment of those around us or even those we never physically come in contact with. When we do a "good" or "right" thing, the majority of the time, it is because we sense some benefit for ourselves and seek to bring it about. Our good is the first thing willed and the benevolence toward another is secondary. The average person is not habitually drawn to pure selfless charity but may need a nudge in the right direction. This also points to our communal nature as persons. Without our knowing it we, in acting for our benefit, build up the lives of other people and the community around us. Our best interests are interrelated to those of our neighbor and should be sought with him in mind.

Unfortunately these personal incentives to benevolence, once taken away may reveal the lack of genuine good will on the part of the one acting. When we no longer receive that personal benefit for something done for another, will we still do it? Economists are fearing new tax reform, which may reveal the true willingness of some individuals to be charitable. In an effort to close the deficit in the budget, lawmakers may adjust the charitable deduction incentives in the current tax code. "President Obama has proposed limiting the value of charitable and itemized deductions for upper-income taxpayers, capping the deduction at 28 percent, regardless of whether the individuals are in the 33 percent or 35 percent tax brackets." Among other options for reform The Debt Reduction Task Force suggests to do away with charitable deductions all together, by "eliminating the charitable deduction and replacing it with a 15 percent refundable tax credit payable to nonprofits." Whatever shape this reform takes most are sensing a negative effect on charitable organizations, with a wide range of predictions on the actual outcome. "Predictions ranging from a minor impact (a decline of 1.9 percent) to a moderate impact (a decline of 4.6 percent) to a large impact (a decline of $9 billion.)"
http://www.councilofnonprofits.org/public-policy/federal/preserving-the-charitable-giving-incentive

If benevolence is so closely linked to incentives, there most certainly will be an effect on charitable giving. Perhaps this will be true until the first thing willed is the benevolence given to another before the secondary effect of personal gain.