IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/elg/eechap/16909_19.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

State and federal tax policy toward nonprofit organizations

In: Handbook of Research on Nonprofit Economics and Management

Author

Listed:
  • James Alm
  • Daniel Teles

Abstract

State and federal tax policy in the United States generally favors nonprofit organizations, and particularly nonprofits classified as 501(c)3 nonprofit charities. This favorable tax treatment comes from two types of tax policies. First, nonprofits are exempt from paying a variety of taxes, including the federal corporate income tax (CIT) and many state and local taxes. Second, individuals are encouraged to donate to nonprofit charities through favorable policies in the federal income tax, state income taxes, and the inheritance tax. In this chapter we present some basic material on the tax treatment of nonprofit organizations and then examine what we know and what we do not know about state and federal tax policy toward nonprofit organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • James Alm & Daniel Teles, 2018. "State and federal tax policy toward nonprofit organizations," Chapters, in: Bruce A. Seaman & Dennis R. Young (ed.), Handbook of Research on Nonprofit Economics and Management, chapter 19, pages 370-385, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:16909_19
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781785363511/9781785363511.00027.xml
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jon M. Bakija & William G. Gale & Joel B. Slemrod, 2003. "Charitable Bequests and Taxes on Inheritances and Estates: Aggregate Evidence from across States and Time," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 366-370, May.
    2. Sansing, Richard, 1998. "The Unrelated Business Income Tax, Cost Allocation, and Productive Efficiency," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 51(n. 2), pages 291-302, June.
    3. Kimberley Scharf & Sarah Smith, 2015. "The price elasticity of charitable giving: does the form of tax relief matter?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(2), pages 330-352, April.
    4. Dean Karlan & John A. List, 2007. "Does Price Matter in Charitable Giving? Evidence from a Large-Scale Natural Field Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1774-1793, December.
    5. Gulley, O. David & Santerre, Rexford E., 1993. "The Effect of Tax Exemption on the Market Share of Nonprofit Hospitals," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 46(4), pages 477-86, December.
    6. Saez, Emmanuel, 2004. "The optimal treatment of tax expenditures," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(12), pages 2657-2684, December.
    7. Daniel Teles, 2016. "Do Tax Credits Increase Charitable Giving? Evidence from Arizona and Iowa," Working Papers 1606, Tulane University, Department of Economics, revised Oct 2016.
    8. Duquette, Nicolas J., 2016. "Do tax incentives affect charitable contributions? Evidence from public charities' reported revenues," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 51-69.
    9. Sansing, Richard, 1998. "The Unrelated Business Income Tax, Cost Allocation, and Productive Efficiency," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 51(2), pages 291-302, June.
    10. Joseph J. Cordes & Burton A. Weisbrod, "undated". "Differential Taxation of Nonprofits and the Commercialization of Nonprofit Revenues," IPR working papers 97-15, Institute for Policy Resarch at Northwestern University.
    11. Aronsson, Thomas & Johansson-Stenman, Olof & Wendner, Ronald, 2016. "Redistribution through Charity and Optimal Taxation when People are Concerned with Social Status," Working Papers in Economics 642, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    12. Andreoni, James, 1990. "Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(401), pages 464-477, June.
    13. Diamond, Peter, 2006. "Optimal tax treatment of private contributions for public goods with and without warm glow preferences," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(4-5), pages 897-919, May.
    14. Gulley, O. David & Santerre, Rexford E., 1993. "The Effect of Tax Exemption on the Market Share of Nonprofit Hospitals," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 46(4), pages 477-486, December.
    15. Eckel, Catherine C. & Grossman, Philip J., 2003. "Rebate versus matching: does how we subsidize charitable contributions matter?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(3-4), pages 681-701, March.
    16. Michael Rushton, 2010. "Federal Tax Policy," Chapters, in: Bruce A. Seaman & Dennis R. Young (ed.), Handbook of Research on Nonprofit Economics and Management, chapter 20, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Bakija, Jon & Heim, Bradley T., 2011. "How Does Charitable Giving Respond to Incentives and Income? New Estimates From Panel Data," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 64(2), pages 615-650, June.
    18. Catherine C. Eckel & Philip J. Grossman, 2006. "Subsidizing Charitable Giving with Rebates or Matching: Further Laboratory Evidence," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 72(4), pages 794-807, April.
    19. Cordes, Joseph J., 2011. "Re-Thinking the Deduction for Charitable Contributions: Evaluating the Effects of Deficit-Reduction Proposals," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 64(4), pages 1001-1024, December.
    20. Arthur C. Brooks, 2007. "Income tax policy and charitable giving," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 599-612.
    21. Almond, Douglas & Xia, Xing, 2017. "Do nonprofits manipulate investment returns?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 62-66.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yamamura, Eiji & Tsutsui, Yoshiro & Ohtake, Fumio, 2018. "Altruistic and selfish motivations of charitable giving: The case of the hometown tax donation system (Furusato nozei) in Japan," MPRA Paper 86181, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Roman M. Sheremeta & Neslihan Uler, 2021. "The impact of taxes and wasteful government spending on giving," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 24(2), pages 355-386, June.
    3. Marius A. K. Ring & Thor Olav Thoresen, 2022. "Wealth Taxation and Charitable Giving," CESifo Working Paper Series 9700, CESifo.
    4. Eiji Yamamura & Yoshiro Tsutsui & Fumio Ohtake, 2017. "Altruistic and selfish motivations of charitable giving:Case of the hometown tax donation system in Japan," ISER Discussion Paper 1003, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    5. Meer, Jonathan, 2014. "Effects of the price of charitable giving: Evidence from an online crowdfunding platform," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 113-124.
    6. Adena, Maja, 2021. "How can we improve tax incentives for charitable giving? Lessons from field experiments in fundraising," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 344-353.
    7. Daniel Hungerman & Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm, 2016. "What is the Price Elasticity of Charitable Giving? Toward a Reconciliation of Disparate Estimates," Artefactual Field Experiments 00557, The Field Experiments Website.
    8. Gandullia, Luca & Lezzi, Emanuela, 2018. "The price elasticity of charitable giving: New experimental evidence," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 88-91.
    9. Almunia, Miguel & Guceri, Irem & Lockwood, Ben & Scharf, Kimberley, 2020. "More giving or more givers? The effects of tax incentives on charitable donations in the UK," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    10. YoungRok Kim, 2023. "Effects of tax benefits on the price elasticity of charitable contributions in South Korea," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 206-217, May.
    11. Asatryan, Zareh & Joulfaian, David, 2022. "Taxes and Business Philanthropy in Armenia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 914-930.
    12. Scharf, Kim; Smith, Sarah, 2010. "Rational Inattention to Subsidies for Charitable Contributions," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 02, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    13. Jonathan Meer & Benjamin A. Priday, 2020. "Tax Prices and Charitable Giving: Projected Changes in Donations under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 113-138.
    14. Dajung Jun, 2019. "The Effects of the Dependent Health Insurance Coverage Mandates on Fathers’ Job Mobility and Compensation," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2019n09, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    15. Gabrielle Fack & Camille Landais, 2010. "Are Tax Incentives for Charitable Giving Efficient? Evidence from France," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 2(2), pages 117-141, May.
    16. Daniel M. Hungerman & Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm, 2021. "Impure Impact Giving: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(5), pages 1553-1614.
    17. Ross Hickey & Brad Minaker & A. Abigail Payne & Joanne Roberts & Justin Smith, 2023. "The Effect of Tax Price on Donations: Evidence from Canada," National Tax Journal, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76(2), pages 291-315.
    18. Shusaku Sasaki & Hirofumi Kurokawa & Fumio Ohtake, 2022. "An experimental comparison of rebate and matching in charitable giving: The case of Japan," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 73(1), pages 147-177, January.
    19. Zachary Halberstam & James R. Hines Jr., 2023. "Quality-Aware Tax Incentives for Charitable Contributions," CESifo Working Paper Series 10250, CESifo.
    20. Heist, H. Daniel & Cnaan, Ram A., 2018. "Price and agency effects on charitable giving behavior," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 129-138.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Business and Management; Economics and Finance;

    JEL classification:

    • L3 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:16909_19. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Darrel McCalla (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.e-elgar.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.