JUF News and Public Affairs

JUF News and Public Affairs: "Giving tzedakah vs. charity

By GARY BARTON, C.P.A

While the tax deduction for charitable contributions traces its origin to the Revenue Act of 1917, the mitzvah (or commandment) of giving tzedakah (or charity) goes back more than 3,000 years.

Acts of charity imbue the donor with a feeling of personal satisfaction from helping a fellow human being. On another level, our rabbis tell us that the mitzvah of tzedakah also has a profound effect on the spiritual essence of the donor.

In contrast, giving charity in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Internal Revenue Code enables one to fulfill the judicially sanctioned commandment of lowering one’s taxes. For as Judge Learned Hand stated, “Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor, and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty, to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions' (47-1 USTC 9175)."