Do the rich in the US donate an average of 15 percent of their income? Dick Smith in a recent rant about "selfish" rich Australians made a claim that: > In the United States, the rich donated an average of 15 per cent of their income, Smith said. But in Australia it was less than 1 per cent. ''In America, I'm told that if you are wealthy and you're not known as a philanthropist, you are a social pariah.'' Is there any truth in claim above that America's rich donate an average of 15 percent and rich Australians only donate less than 1 percent? The article is suggesting rich means earning more than $1mil per year.

Tax stats are available here:

<

I downloaded 2009 data: <

I calculated donations as total contributions/Total income

1 to 1.5 million = 2.9%
1.5 to 2 million = 2.9%
2 to 5 million = 3.1%
5 to 10 million = 3.8%
10 million+ = 5.8%

There are 230,000+ people in these combined brackets.

So, according to the IRS, they do not. **However the _IRS restricts the number of donations that can be claimed_ , so this could be drastically under reporting.** The brackets all give around the same amount, with the middle class generally giving the least.