Tax Reform

Have SALT Limits Affected Charitable Giving and Homeownership? Our Experts Weigh In

by
Lee Reams II
on
7/24/2019
Have SALT Limits Affected Charitable Giving and Homeownership? Our Experts Weigh In

One of the more recent controversial changes regarding tax law in the United States takes the form of the state and local tax deduction, otherwise known as the SALT deduction. With the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, the total itemized deduction allowed for state and local taxes was limited to $5,000 for a married person filing a separate return and $10,000 for all other tax filers. This is something that applies not only to 2018 taxes, but to every year until at least 2025, too.

Experts agree that these changes have already made an impact on two areas in particular: charitable giving and homeownership across the country. Under the previous version of the law, homeowners were allowed to deduct all of their state and local personal property taxes, for example, so long as they itemized. Under the new law, however, the limits as outlined above have gone into effect. Likewise, if you pay personal foreign real estate property taxes, these can no longer be updated at all.

Detractors of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act have said that this will have a dramatic negative impact on both charitable contributions and homeownership across the board. Those who owned expensive homes and had both a primary residence and one or more vacation homes were expected to be hit particularly hard as far as homeownership was concerned. But now that the proverbial dust has settled, has any of this actually come to pass?

We asked our experts to give insight on the actual situations they've been seeing this year for their clients. Their responses were enlightening, to say the least.

The Impact of Salt Limits: Breaking Things Down

Allen Lenth, EA, MBA of Executive Tax Solutions said that "regarding charities, my clients are actually giving more than ever. Homeownership has increased in Texas, too." When asked as to why this might be, he said that "when taxes are lowed for income — as they have been for most taxpayers — they feel empowered. In Texas, that means that more homes are bought, and more money is spent on luxury items."

Katherine M. Bennett, CPA, however, has been experiencing essentially the exact opposite situation. "I've noticed that there were fewer charitable contributions being made in 2018," she said. "People are also making decisions about mortgages and homeownership based on the new tax laws. Because fewer people can itemize, that is shifting mortgages and charitable contributions, because most people just can't use them anymore."

Others still have seen stories that fall squarely in between these two extremes. "My tax clients are about 50/50 — some donate because they feel a strong attachment to their church or foundation, while the other half donates for a tax strategy," said Laura Walker, EA of Walker Tax Firm. "The strategic tax client is more likely to be above the $12,000/$24,000 standard deduction threshold in order to itemize and still have their charitable donations count towards the deduction."

She did, however, acknowledge that so much of this is specific to the area of the country where you live. "In Minnesota, taxpayers are still allowed to itemize at the state level. When I pointed that out to clients who were unable to itemize at the federal level, I think they felt relief that their charitable contributions were still acknowledged in some way."

Where Do We Go from Here?

Not only has Elizabeth P. Davies, CPA of Taxes Untangled noticed a change, but she's also been proactively taking steps to help her clients mitigate risk from that change moving forward.

"I have begun talking about bunching deductions to more of my clients that donate significantly, but not enough to get them over their threshold each year," she said. "This includes bunching their real estate taxes as well."

She said her reasoning for this was simple. These clients "have a high enough income that their mindset is to support their community in a way that lets them receive some tax benefit at least every other year." She said that she and her clients have also "spoken about notifying their charities regarding their change in timing of their donations so that their own internal budgeting can take that into account."

Bradley Smith, EA of Bradley Smith, Inc., on the other hand, says that he hasn't really observed any type of appreciable change at all. "I have not noticed a change in charitable giving on 2018 tax returns," he said, adding that "if this is going to be a trend, I think it will be noticeable in 2019 after clients have received their 2018 return and realized that they did not receive any benefit from the contributions."

He finished by stating, "It will be interesting to see if their charitable contributions decline with this new information."

Indeed, this is something that both proponents and detractors of the new tax law — and of those new SALT limits — will be paying close attention to moving forward.

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Lee Reams II

Lee Reams II

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I am a tax and business news junkie who has spent the last 20 years developing and executing "best in class" word-of-mouth marketing campaigns for tax and accounting professionals. With TaxBuzz and CountingWorks we have taken that same commitment to quality content directly to the consumer. Keeping you up-to-date with the latest tax law changes, business growth tips and planning strategies to help you reach your best financial outcome.

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