Ain’t Charity: Disallowing Deductions for Kept Resources

The two proposals in this article have a common theme: Accounting for taxable income should reflect money a taxpayer has kept for his own self-serving uses. A charitable deduction is reasonable when the taxpayer has forfeited resources to others, but not when the taxpayer has consumed resources for self-use. Providing a subsidy by exempting resources that a taxpayer has kept for himself is not a reasonable way to promote an…