INDIANAPOIS (WTHR) - Charitable donations are expected to be big this weekend because some new rules on tax deductions are set to start at the beginning of the new year. The last week of the year is always a busy time for charitable donations, with a lot of people trying to get them done before the year ends. But that may be the case even more so this time around.
That's because new tax rules go into effect for 2018, which were just passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump in the last couple weeks. The standard deduction is getting doubled to $12,000 per person and $24,000 for a married couple. This is a huge change, since two-thirds of Americans will be affected by it. And it means many people who itemize deductions now may not do it anymore, because it's not worth it.
Because of that, money experts are predicting a big drop in people who itemize deductions to as few as 10%. That's a major change from how many people do now, which is about one-third of taxpayers. And as a result of that, they say fewer people will donate since it won't be worth a big write-off.
We talked with workers from Goodwill in Indiana to get their take. Cindy Graham, who is the vice president of marketing, says they’re trying to be as accessible as they can this weekend to take donations til 5 pm on Sunday. The good news for them is Graham says about half the people who donate don't ask for a receipt, so they're doing it for the good feeling instead of the tax write-off, so that shouldn't be impacted by the new law.