The Sensitivity of Charitable Giving to the Timing and Salience of Tax Credits

Ross Hickey, Bradley Minaker and A. Payne

Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne

Abstract: If a taxpayer is able to claim charitable donations made near the time of filing her tax return, will she give more? To what extent does the salience of tax-induced incentives matter? This paper explores the role of the timing and salience of tax incentives on reported tax filer giving. As a result of the January 12, 2010 Haiti Earthquake, taxpayers in Quebec, Canada were given an opportunity to report donations that were made near the time of filing on their 2009 tax returns, while taxpayers located elsewhere in Canada were not given this opportunity. 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.

Keywords: Charitable giving; donations; disaster relief; tax incentives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H0 H40 H84 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 63pp
Date: 2019-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pbe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Journal Article: The Sensitivity of Charitable Giving to the Timing and Salience of Tax Credits (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2019n02

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