Why do we subsidize donations to the opera?

Abstract

In many countries – the US, Canada and the UK, for example – donors to charities receive the identical subsidy through the tax system whether their donation is to a homeless shelter, or to the opera. The way in which charitable giving is subsidized differs across systems, but the equal treatment of very different charities is common to them. Given the different circumstances of the beneficiaries of these various of charities, how can the identical tax subsidy for donations be justified? One approach is to consider the charitable subsidy in light of egalitarian theories of justice and to ask whether a subsidy to charitable gifts to arts institutions that primary benefit the well-off could be justified within the theory. An alternative approach avoids the overarching theory of just distribution and focuses instead on the essentially political and practical aspects of the income tax. This essay considers both approaches, concluding that the latter is more appropriate to the question of the charitable subsidy, and that there is a case to be made for equal treatment of donation to charities with markedly different beneficiaries.