It's giving season and some charities are offering donation matching again. For this to work as an incentive, I feel that I should be able to use them as a "donation discount" on my pledge. So for example if I pledged 10% of my income of 100k, then if I donate 5k to a matching scheme, thereby achieving 10k donated, I would have fulfilled my pledge of donating 10k. How do others treat this?
It mostly makes sense to me. Gift Aid has much the same purpose and ultimate effect in the UK as the US' tax deductions for charitable contributions, I think.
In the US, if I give $10,000, I will (often) be able to deduct a certain amount from my tax bill -- the amount depends on my marginal tax rate, but let's say $2,200 for this example. So the "cost" to me of directing $10,000 to the charity is $7,800.
In the UK, I can give $8,000, and the UK government will kick in an extra $2,000. I think that is seen as coming from my tax payment (in that if the charit... (read more)