Some middle-income taxpayers took the opportunity to increase their donations
and thus benefited from the new law. The taxpayers in the two middle deciles
(deciles 4 and 5) of this income area significantly increased their donations from
1986 to 1988, when adjusted for inflation and also increased the percentage of
giving to after-tax income. These increases, however, were not sustained into
1992. This result does not support the findings of Ricketts and Westfall (1993).
The percentage of taxpayers in decile 4 who gave more than $250 also increased
significantly from 1986 to 1988, and this increase was sustained in 1992.
In the high-income deciles, only taxpayers in the tenth decile followed the a
priori prediction that they would decrease their donations. The taxpayers in the
middle two deciles of this group (deciles 8 and 9) increased their giving generally,
though taxpayers in the ninth decile decreased their contributions as a percentage
of after-tax income. Overall, except for the taxpayers in decile 10, the results do
not support a pure tax cost argument explaining philanthropy, which would have
predicted results opposite to those obtained