Did I Miss Something?

This blog is really not intended to muck about in politics, but... *harrumph*... perhaps I was busy trimming my beard, or maybe my nose hair (which requires far greater concentration), but I seem to have completely missed out on any national conversation or debate over this, which I'm sure must have been vocal and abundant.  Far be it that anyone should get all worked up over such a trivial matter, but in looking over the instructions for the IRS Form 1040, I recently found the following;

 

Expiring tax benefits.

The following benefits are scheduled to expire and will not be available for 2010.

... The exclusion from income of qualified charitable distributions

 

Tax-deductible charitable contributions are... just gone? In the words of my old Building-and-Loan pal, George Bailey... "Do you realize what this means?"

Did I read this wrong? Am I dreaming?

UPDATE: So, a couple of knowledgable commenters at Jimmy Akin's blog have pointed out that, unlike the "charitable tax deduction", the "exclusion from income" is limited to direct contributions of things like IRAs to charitiy. So, a follow up question: how will this affect charities and donors? How greatly do charitable organizations count on this sort of funding?

It doesn;t sound as dire as I had imagined.

Comments

[Darin]

We're looking at that too - the current tax credit for adoption is set to expire at the end of this year and go back to the original amounts, which aren't much. We're looking at special needs adoption of a sibling group and the tax credit is going to make a huge difference in our ability to afford to help out the kids we are hoping to help. The resolutions to keep it going are both stalled out in committee.

[Bob]

This will be devastating to charities, which is the way the current brood of statists wants it. I won't go too tax-geek on you (I'm an accountant), but the short version is that a) people of means are going to be on the hook for more taxes due to the AMT, and b) charities will suffer. Charity, after all, is the government's business.