In the Extreme Theocon diary, it was mentioned that Virginia has a tax credit for people contributing to political campaigns. Last year when I did my Ohio income tax I discovered this to be true there as well. Too late to claim it even thought I had done my taxes myself in Ohio at least the past 10 years. I even went and checked the 2002 forms to see if it was a new things that the Republicans had snuck in to benefit themselves.
Nope. It was there the year before which made me realize that since prior to the Dean campaign I almost never donated political contributions to anyone that it was never something that I paid any attention too.
Is your state one that gives a tax incentive to donate?
How many other fairly politically involved or at least paying attention people have no clue as to the fact that their state might have tax incentives to donate to state and local parties and candidates? I guarantee you it's a pretty fucking high percentage. The cynical part of me imagines that Republicans are much more likely to make use of this incentive even if they are less involved if just for the reason that as a party they are much more opposed to the idea of paying taxes.
I have not included states which have check off boxes that go to a general clean election fund. I am a partisan Kos Democrat so I am concerned here with ways to help our party. I also didn't include states that have a surcharge that you can donate to as I don't know why anyone would do that rather than just donating directly. The latter are, however, included in the FEC link at the end.
*NOTE: This is from the FEC form from 2002 so things may have changed. In addition, this is my reading of the FEC form. Check with the actual state tax rules and don't take advice from a non-accountant like me.
33 states offer nothing. Of the 34% of states that do offer some tax incentive to contribute to the political party or candidate of your choice, 5 states offer less than $10. But if you live in Virginia, Oregon, Oklahoma, Ohio, North Carolina, Montana, Minnesota, Hawaii, Arkansas, or Arizona then this is something you should consider looking into. I find it very interesting that the only one of these 10 that is a reliable Blue state is Hawaii. 4 are reliably red and 5 are "swing states". Of course Ohio is supposedly a swing state but the Republicans control every level of the state government.
1. Alabama: none
2. Alaska: None
3. Arizona: Get money off your taxes dollar-for-dollar not to exceed 20% of taxes or $530 per tax payer whichever is higher to donations to clean elections fund that is distributed to political party designated by taxpayer.
4. Arkansas: $50 tax credit fo contributions to candidates, small donor PAC, approved PAC, or organized political party
5. California: None
6. Colorado: None
7. Connecticut: None
8. Delaware: None
9. Florida: None
10. Georgia: None
11. Hawaii: Tax Deductions of $100 for contributions to central or county party committees, or $500 for contributions to candidates who abide by expenditure limits, with deductible maximum of $100 of a total contribution to a single candidate.
12. Idaho: $1 dollar checkoff on form that goes to party selected
13. Illinois: None
14. Indiana: Revenues for political party license plates are divided between state and county level parties.
15. Iowa: $1.50 dollar checkoff on form that goes to party selected
16. Kansas: none
17. Kentucky: $2 dollar checkoff on form that goes to party selected
18. Louisiana: None
19. Maine: None
20. Maryland: none
21. Massachusetts: none
22. Michigan: none
23. Minnesota: Tax credit of $50 for contributions to political parties and qualifying candidates.
24. Mississippi: none
25. Missouri: none
26. Montana: $100 tax deduction
27. Nebraska: none
28. Nevada: none
29. New Hampshire: none
30. New Jersey: none
31. New Mexico: none
32. New York: none
33. North Carolina: $25 deduction for political contribution or newsletter fund contribution. Checkoff on tax form goes according to % political party registration.
34. North Dakota: none
35. Ohio: The maximum credit is $50 (for single or married separate filers) and $100 (for married filing jointly). You get a tax credit for contributions to the following Ohio offices: Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor of State, Treasurer of State, Attorney General, Ohio Board of Education, Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, Justice of the Ohio Supreme court, Ohio Senate, or Ohio House of Representatives.
36. Oklahoma: $100 dedution
37. Oregon: Tax Credit for "Lesser of (1) total contributions with a maximum of $50 [a], or (2) the taxpayer's liability for contribution to a major or minor party, a candidate for any office, or registered political committee."
38. Pennsylvania: none
39. Rhode Island: $5 check off of which first $2 goes to political party designated by taxpayer for a maximum of $200,000 to them and remainder to matching funds..
40. South Carolina: none
41. South Dakota: none
42. Tennessee: none
43. Texas: none
44. Utah: $1 checkoff to political party designated by taxpayer.
45. Vermont: none
46. Virginia: The Virginia credit is equal to 50% of the political contributions made to candidates for state and local offices, not to exceed $25 for an individual taxpayer or $50 for taxpayers filing a joint return.
47. Washington: none
48. West Virginia : none
49. Wisconsin: none
50. Wyoming: none
http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/cfl/cfl02/cfl02chart4.htm