One in five estates left money or other assets to charity in 2004, the most recent-year for which information is available, according to a new report released by the IRS.
People who died and left larger estates were more likely to make a charitable bequest than those with smaller estates and, on average, gave away a larger portion of their gross estates to charity.
The causes donors supported also varied by the size of the estate.
Estates of $1.5-million to $3.5-million left a much smaller share of bequests — 13.6 percent — to private foundations, community funds, and other groups that promote philanthropy and volunteerism than the average estate. Estates of that size left significantly larger shares of bequests to educational and religious organizations than the average estate.
Medium-sized estates, of $3.5-million to $5-million, reported a distribution of bequests similar to small estates, the IRS said, although they left a lesser share to religious organizations and a greater share to groups that promote social services; arts, culture, and humanities; and animal welfare.
Estates of $5-million or more left most of their bequests — 70.2 percent — to private foundations and other groups that promote philanthropy. About 10.5 percent of bequests from those estates went to educational organizations.
The IRS said the 42,239 estate tax returns that were filed with the government in 2004 represented a 61-percent decrease from the 109,562 returns filed in 2001.
The decrease was largely the result of a law enacted in 2001 that gradually increased the filing threshold for estate tax returns from $675,000 for people who died in 2001 to $1.5-million for those who died in 2004, the IRS said.
Under the law, the exemption increased to $2-million in 2006 and will rise to $3.5-million in 2009.
For 2010, no estate tax will apply. But unless Congress passes new legislation to extend the current law, the exemption amount will be set at $1-million in 2011.
