Questions

[dk3...@student.american.edu]

• What % of total nonprofit overall revenue comes from government funding (i.e. contracts, grants, payments for services, etc. etc.) ? If possible: how much is this in dollar terms? The Nonprofit Sector in Brief might be a good source: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412674-The-Nonprofit-Sector-in-Brief.pdf

  • What is this figure for human services nonprofits?

  • What is this figure for arts and culture nonprofits?

  • What % of total nonprofit revenue overall comes from individual giving? If possible: how much is this in dollar terms?

    • What % of revenues for human services nonprofits come from individual giving?

    • What is this figure for arts and culture nonprofits?

Overall this should paint a picture of government funding being a much larger source of revenue for human services nonprofits (and other subsectors like social services) than individual giving.

• What % of national income is earned by the top brackets added together? (i.e. top 2 quintiles, all the brackets of those earning over $200k, etc.- defining by dollar rather than quintile would be preferable)

  • What % of the overall income tax revenue of the federal government comes from this block?

• How much do itemized deductions overall cost government as a tax expenditure?

  • How much does the charitable deduction cost the federal government? $39 billion in 2013: http://www.urban.org/taxandcharities/upload/Rosenberg_2013-02-28.pdf

  • What % of the itemized deduction tax expenditure comes from deductions claimed by those making more than $200k or in a similarly defined group?

• How much added revenue does the most recent budget project as a result of capping all itemized deductions at 28%?

  • How much revenue is projected if the charitable deduction is excluded and people are still allowed to deduct up to 50% of gross income if they give it to charity?

  • How much more will people making over $200k pay in taxes if itemized deductions are limited to 28% of gross income?

    • As a percentage increase by bracket from the current amount paid?

    • As a dollar amount more than currently paid?

    • (Same questions for everyone else)- How much of the burden (what % of revenue brought in) would be paid by people making under $200k?

  • 
    

[Doug Kershner]

Hey guys, just rephrasing one of the questions above:

What % of personal income taxes are earned by those making over $200k per year?

What % of personal income taxes are paid by earners (both individuals and households) making over $200k?

Not meaning to fill up your inbox, but be expecting more questions incrementally as they come along!
Thanks,

Doug

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[dk3...@student.american.edu]

Hey guys, fresh questions and sources here! I think some of the answers to the questions might be in some of the Urban Institute slides from the charitable deduction presentation, but probably not all of them.

• http://www.indiana.edu/~spea/faculty/policy_briefs/rushton_on_charitable_giving.pdf

• http://acreform.com/article/ideas_to_limit_charitable_deductions_in_tax_code_overhaul_worrisome_for_cha/

• http://www.artsjournal.com/worth/2013/04/limiting-the-charitable-deduction/

• Question: If the charitable deduction were converted to a tax credit, how much would it cost the government? How much revenue would be gained vs. current policy (expenditure of $39m – new cost) and vs. the 28% cap (cost of credit vs. cost proposed in budget)

• Question: Sources occasionally discuss moving the charitable deduction “between the line,” i.e. calculated after the total tax burden is added together but at some point around or before the application of marginal rates. What would this sort of proposal look like? (Very brief summary w/ articles would be ideal- I feel we may be able to dismiss this option fairly easily due to “regulatory complexity” and adding costs due to efficiency)

• Question: Other proposals have talked about limiting the deduction's benefit as a % of adjusted gross income (i.e. the maximum amount of taxes being paid as a % of gross income minus all of the deductible expenses [potentially up to a cap like 28% or 50%]. How much revenue would limiting its benefit to 2% of AGI bring in? (how much with a 50% cap? with a 28% cap? These may not be as easily found) (Again these may be dismissible in the paper due to complexity)

Thanks again so much guys! Let me know if any clarification would be helpful or if you need anything at all!
-Doug

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[ad0592a]

hey Georgette, 

what do you think about splitting the questions between the both of us, so that we don't work twice on the same questions? But at the same time if we come across any documentation that could help clarify any other questions, we could just pass it along.

let me know what you think

[Doug Kershner]

Hey, just wanted to clarify that the last question is a little thorny, I think I could clarify it better later, but as of now, consider it a very low priority since I'm not sure a good answer will be easily at hand.
Thanks again,
Doug

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[Georgette Hagans]

Anything else, just let us know!

On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 7:07 AM, <dk3...@student.american.edu> wrote:

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[Doug Kershner]

So I'm working with slide 4 of the attached presentation from Rosenberg, looking at itemized deductions, and I just had a couple questions about taxpayers overall, some of which I might've asked earlier. BTW, I think 2010 might be the best and easiest year to look at in terms of tax data, simply for consistency's sake, though it's not critical if you guys find other timely sources using info on returns from 2009 or 2011.

According to the slide, taxpayers making under $200k file 91.16% of all itemized deductions- but one would assume that those making under $200k make up more than 91.65% of all people who pay taxes-
 what % of taxpayers overall are people making less than $200k? how many people making $200k or less filed returns in 2010?

how much income is earned by this group in aggregate? This is essentially the same question as the one I asked earlier about what % of all the nation's income is earned by those making over $200k
As a group, how much do people making under $200k pay in personal income taxes?
as a % of the overall revenue accrued to the government from personal income taxes? (the IRS or Obama's most recent budget proposal would likely be good sources)

how many people making $200k or less didn't itemize in 2010 (it's helpful to know that 42,524 thousand people making $200k or less DID itemize in 2010)?
what % of the total of those making under $200k DID NOT itemize?

Same questions for those making over $200k- 4,121 of them itemized in 2010- how many filed returns overall (itemized or not)? (4,121 is very likely to be almost all of them)
what % did not itemize?

This might be a good chance to get some IRS data in, since he said he wanted government sources in addition to news articles (the ones you guys posted being especially helpful!) and journal articles (which I found plenty of).
I'm also pretty sure that there's a question about projected revenue from limiting itemized deductions in Obama's most recent budget- finding that would also help diversify sources. Thanks again!
Doug

[Georgette Hagans]

Ok...I'm looking into this.

[ad0592a]

Working on the questions... Don't hesitate if you have some more 

On Wednesday, April 17, 2013 2:03:12 PM UTC-4, dk3...@student.american.edu wrote:

[ad0592a]

Here is what I have. I hope it would be helpful. I tried to get you some numbers Doug, 

Let me know if the findings need to be more specific in case they don't sufficiently answer the questions.

Just to make sure, when are we meeting again? ( sunday 8pm??)

On Wednesday, April 17, 2013 2:03:12 PM UTC-4, dk3...@student.american.edu wrote:

[gh7013a]

Still working on other questions... Alima those answers and cites were very helpful!!!

[gh7013a]

I realize some of the info I posted is from 2009,I was showing info from recent years as well, showing that the trend hasn't deviated much.

On Wednesday, April 17, 2013 2:03:12 PM UTC-4, dk3...@student.american.edu wrote:

[gh7013a]

Here are more responses to the questions.

[Doug Kershner]

Hey guys,

Thanks again so much for everything! It is all incredibly helpful! I'm going to have the paper done today (that is beyond a shadow of a doubt, since Biddle's paper and another presentation are both looming large for me), but it's still a work in progress as of right now since last night's news was a little distracting (my sister goes to Bentley University, which is only 10 minutes from all of the shootouts), but I'll have a draft out to you guys as soon as I have the citations for what I've written finished. So far I've written about how deductions are costs to government paid out disproportionately to the rich since they take so many more of them, and that since charitable giving deductions make up a larger share of these costs (and therefore net benefits) for high-income earners, charitable deductions overall should be limited, and to ensure that this limit still increases the burden of the rich, the charitable giving deduction should NOT be excluded from any reforms to reduce the cost of deductions overall (to lower limits).

The next step is to write about how the charitable contributions made by the wealthy go to arts & culture nonprofits, higher education, and hospitals/health and not to social services nonprofits; how nonprofits that help the poor rely on government funding instead of private giving, and therefore encouraging private giving is not the best way to fund these organizations that create direct benefits to those in need. Therefore, increasing government revenue and spending on these nonprofits is the best way to make government expenditures the most equitable and beneficial to those with the greatest need. Then comes the policy proposal, which I'm thinking should be the imposition of a 28% cap and a $500 floor.

I think I have pretty much everything I need with just two exceptions-

1) Alima would you happen to have the URL for the IRS data you put into that spreadsheet? It was IMMENSELY helpful and I actually have some software that would quite easily cite it as long as I can feed it the URL.

2) Would it be possible to find the direct White House/Executive Office/Office of Management and Budget websites/documents (with URLs) projecting the increased revenue from Obama's 28% cap proposal? Even if we can only find 10-year revenue increase projections, having the data from the most recent budget proposal itself and not news articles about it would be huge- I realize this might be a bit onerous, but Prof Hardy was carrying on about varying our sources and using government data (and right now we have CBO and IRS data, the White House or OMB would round out our alphabet soup nicely)

Once again, I really really cannot thank you guys enough. I'll have a draft out ASAP and I'm looking forward to meeting at 8 PM tomorrow in the library!

-Doug

On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 7:28 PM, gh7013a <gh7...@student.american.edu> wrote:

Here are more responses to the questions.

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[gh7013a]

Oh no its no problem.  I think everyone was distracted due to yesterday's events.  I hope your sister is ok.  We are here for anything you need! On top of the other questions.  Thanks again Doug!

[ad0592a]

Thank you so much again Doug! and I also hope your sister is OK. What happened in Boston was just surreal, I was glued to the phone with my brother the entire week. 

1) Here is the URL for the IRS that was on the spreadsheet.The official spreadsheet is published as "Individual Complete Report (Publication 1304), Table 3.5" and is under the "Individual Income Tax Returns with Tax Computation" section.

http://www.irs.gov/uac/SOI-Tax-Stats---Individual-Statistical-Tables-by-Size-of-Adjusted-Gross-Income

2) Here is what I found on the OMB side: it has a 10-year revenue increase projections

• http://www.foreffectivegov.org/files/budget/Revenue/ItemizedDeductions.pdf
  
• OR http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BUDGET-2013-BUD/pdf/BUDGET-2013-BUD.pdf (Page 220- Table S9- Line "Reduce the value of certain tax expenditures" we can also see the projected revenue increase form 2013 to 2017 of $227B or the projections over a ten year period ( 2013-2022) of $584B

Have a good weekend guys!

On Wednesday, April 17, 2013 2:03:12 PM UTC-4, dk3...@student.american.edu wrote:

[dk3...@student.american.edu]

Thanks again guys! My sister is doing fine thanks- I'll have to call her at some point to check in given how scary it must've been, but she sounds like she's doing well. Alima I hope your brother is doing well as well.
Anyway, the paper is finished! I've attached it; it ended up being the full 7 pages at 1.5 spacing. Also I've attached a couple of pdfs that I think would be good for the powerpoint in terms of graphics or at least data we could make a graph out of. Once again thank you guys so much for all of the info and I can't wait to get this thing over with tomorrow night!
-Doug

[ad0592a]

Here is the summary

On Wednesday, April 17, 2013 2:03:12 PM UTC-4, dk3...@student.american.edu wrote: