Rudy Takala writes for the Washington Examiner about a new study probing the links between tax rates and charitable giving.
Looking at data from 1997 to 2012, researchers at the American Legislative Exchange Council found that taxpayers who give more to the government keep more of their money overall than their less-heavily taxed counterparts in other states, because they don’t bother giving to charity after government has finished with them.
“When all state taxes are considered, a 1 percentage point increase in the total tax burden is associated with a 1.16 percent drop in charitable giving per dollar of state income,” the report states.
In all, 41 states experienced increases in charitable giving. Of the nine that had the largest increases, the report found, four do not impose a personal income tax. Those were South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.
Nine states saw a reduction in the amount that was donated to charity. Of those, one-third are among those with the highest income taxes in the nation. Those are Hawaii (with a personal income tax of 11 percent), Minnesota (9.85 percent) and New York (8.82 percent).
Measured as a percentage of adjusted gross income, the most charitable states were:
1. Utah
2. Wyoming
3. Georgia
4. Alabama
5. Mississippi
6. Oklahoma
7. Idaho
8. South Carolina
9. North Carolina
10. Maryland
On the other end of the spectrum, the least generous states from 41st to 50th were New Mexico, Hawaii, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, Alaska, Maine, West Virginia, North Dakota and New Hampshire.
