Digging deeper into their wallets
People in San Jose, which includes Santa Clara County, donated 2.3 percent of their income, down from 2.4 percent in 2006.
That pattern mirrored the behavior of wealthy Americans nationwide.
The report, titled “The Income-Inequality Divide Hits Generosity,” highlighted its finding that “the wealthiest Americans are giving a smaller share of their income to charity, while poor and middle-income people are digging deeper into their wallets.”
The report is based on the roughly 30 percent of tax returns filed that claimed itemized deductions. Most of these returns come from higher-income people, so I’m not sure how much the poor are actually giving. Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, says that itemizers represent an estimated 85 percent of all giving.
In 2006, Americans with $200,000 or more in adjusted gross income deducted a total of $64 billion in charitable contributions, which represented 2.9 percent of their adjusted gross income.
In 2012, they contributed $77.5 billion, which represented 2.8 percent of their income.
Taxpayers in the next lower bracket — $100,000 to $200,000 in income — donated a slightly smaller percentage of income to charity: 2.7 percent in 2006 and 2.6 percent in 2012.