Are donations to local churches dropping due to recent tax law changes?

I pray donations are declining.

Nope.

There’s a huge worry for churches. Many of them – especially the big megachurches that have built humongous buildings over the last 10–15 years – have big mortgages.

If contributions are down because of tax non-deductibility, some percentage of churches will default on their mortgages and end up abandoning their sites or moving out.

I myself have not decreased my giving. (Sorry @Hawaii_Jake ), but then my motivation in giving was never to receive a tax deduction. In fact I’ve never claimed my giving on my taxes.

Church donations and tithes are akin to Mafia protection rackets.
The difference being that the Mafia’s threats are real.

Church membership has declined precipitously in the last 20 years. Link Down 20%.

Church attendance has also declined. Link

I’m hoping there is some way to get hard numbers from someone like a Church finance director, or Collections person, etc.

@KNOWITALL Is there any way to get real data?

In 2016, NY Times reported that religious donations decreased 50% from 1990. Link

Here are more stats.

It may be too soon to know the statistics related to the change in the tax law.

I tithe to my church because it’s my way of giving back in all the ways I’ve been blessed, not because of some Mafia type threat. If that’s what anyone thinks, they don’t understand.

I don’t know about overall; however, I do know that the church I grew up in has gone from 600 members to 100. The donations are down drastically mainly because most often members who tithed religiously have passed away due to their age. The generation under them seemed to have stayed broke & never got ni the habit of tithing & they simply expect the church to just continue as before with minimal income. I don’t think it has anything to do with the tax deduction laws.

Well yeah. Church attendance is declining rapidly.

The megachurches are well-funded and always will be,

The older “mainline protestant” churches, primarily liberal and moderate white churches, and older neighborhood-type churches (due to limited growth potential and changing neighborhood demographics), have been in steady decline for several decades.

It is unlikely that tax changes have had ANY effect on donations, as most people’s financial situation have mostly improved—but not everyone.

@Yellowdog Wait until next year “most people’s financial situation have mostly improved”! The tariffs will kick in and everything will go up in price and wages will be frozen.

Have you ever noticed that whenever you make an anti-Trump prediction, the opposite happens, @Tropical_Willie ?

The recession is coming and I have enough stashed away, do you ? ? ? ?

You need to look at what is happening from ORANGE MAN ! ! !

Your (@Yellowdog) understanding of global economics is appalling and China holds the cards not TRUMP, the Bozo will run all the USA in to the dump.

I think it’s more likely to hurt other charities, but it would be interesting to know the actual stats.

I wonder if the majority of donations to churches are small amounts from individuals that never helped them to itemize anyway? I think a lot of church donations have nothing to do with tax breaks, but this is all guessing on my part. Maybe that’s because I’m stereotyping who goes to church? The average middle or lower class person in the Bible Belt probably wasn’t itemizing anyway since typically they have lowish property tax and a moderate mortgage, and remember the very poor are renting. Maybe it will impact Northeast and West Coast churches more than Southern or Midwest?

Just last week I was considering a lot of tax options and I thought about doing bigger donations, and mine would not have been to a church. Rather, I would give to heart disease, and maybe something to help local children if there is an organization I like that does that. For me to itemize now it’s so out of reach I probably won’t. I will still do some small donations, but this year when I really need to defer income the new standard deduction discourages me from donating, because the threshold is too high. That’s the case this year anyway, because of my specific situation (my husband is out of work as you know). So, if churches were on my radar, I would be deterred by the current tax law.

This is actually something I had wondered years ago. I like the idea of a simpler tax plan without all these loopholes and write-offs. A flatter tax where the rich can’t get out of paying tax as they so often do. At the same time I wondered if the game encouraged investment and charitable donations, and how that would change. Maybe the Trump tax changes will give us a window into that.

Wake up…Trump isn’t going to take the loopholes away from his rich friends nor himself….only from those who can’t afford to lose them!!! How are the rich going to get richer IF they have to live like the middle class or the poor???

@LadyMarissa Who are you talking to? This Q is about more than Trump, and not really about being mad at the rich. It’s a Q about possible unintended consequences of tax law changes. Unless, you think Trump purposely is trying to destroy churches (or help them) with his tax changes?

@JLeslie I was comenting to YOUR “Maybe the Trump tax changes will give us a window into that.”

Although I agree with most of what you said, I find that thinking that trump is doing it to balance things out to be ridiculous. He’s NEVER going to make the rich pay their part…Even Bill Gates has said as much!!!

@Lonelyheart807 I literally never heard of anyone taking a slip for taxes from the church.

They offer receipts for tax deducts with every donation to a non-profit here, as well as cemetary upkeep donations, etc…. I have a pile and never use them, that’s not the intent behind donations or tithe. I hear you, same here.

@Yellowdog That’s what I see here, mega churches are fine, the smaller ones are not.

The sad part is that the old school churches are still preaching against LGBTQ’s, etc…and many people my age are not okay with it. I went to my mom’s old school church on mothers day and Easter this year, and heard anti-LGBTQ statements and told her I couldn’t stomach that from the pulpit. I just keep thinking, what if a gay couple brought their child to church for the first time and heard that. It’s not what I think Jesus would want, so I can’t promote that agenda, even as a Christian.

@LadyMarissa To balance things out? Who said that?

Actually, @KNOWITALL , our church treasurers prepare tax statements for everyone who has given, usually every quarter. I just toss mine.

@Lonelyheart807 Yep, same.

News article out today: Americans are Giving Less to Charity

But it isn’t a direct correlation to tax law changes.

Thanks! that is good info. From the article:

“Another factor that’s affecting charitable giving: President Trump’s tax reform, Osili said. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doubled the standard deduction for taxpayers. Nonprofits feared this would eliminate the incentive for people to itemize deductions and make them less likely to make charitable donations, which are typically itemized.

More than 45 million households itemized deductions in 2016, according to Giving USA. That number may have dropped to approximately 16 to 20 million households in 2018, the report said. Some nonprofit leaders feared fewer itemizers could lead to a $13 to $20 billion drop in donations. While those dire predictions haven’t materialized yet, experts say it’s still too early to tell exactly how the new tax law has affected charitable giving.

While giving to religious groups and education declined, there were significant increases, on a percentage basis, in donations to environmental causes and international affairs.”