TLS as president, one page, 7 x 9, White House letterhead, July 29, 1935. Letter to Hon. Howard S. Cullman, a board member of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who had served as treasurer for FDR's New York campaigns of 1928 and 1930. In full: "Your argument in a very special case like that of the Beekman Street Hospital is grand, but the chief reason it is grand is that you give direct service to the employees of the corporation offices located in downtown New York. That particular end of things could be handled by annual contracts which would bring you in from these corporations just as much money as you get now. As a matter of fact, I think the proposed bill makes no changes in existing law." In fine condition, with toning from prior display.
The Revenue Act of 1935 included the first-ever federal legislation allowing corporations to deduct charitable giving on their income taxes. Until that time, various court decisions allowed corporations to count some charitable contributions as essential business expenses, but the rulings were inconsistent. Major charitable organizations, including Community Chest, lobbied for the new legislation, saying that they needed consistent corporate support to survive. The new law allowed corporations to deduct up to five percent of pretax net income.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke against the corporate deductions. He said that individuals should decide for themselves which charities they wish to donate money to. Corporations that make charitable donations give away part of the stockholders’ investments, he said. Roosevelt added that corporations that contribute to charities are trying to buy the public’s goodwill. But on August 30th the president signed into law the tax bill, which also increased taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations to pay for domestic programs he supported.
Howard Stix Cullman, who had served as Roosevelt’s treasurer for earlier New York governor campaigns, was one of the charity executives who publicly supported the new law. He wrote Roosevelt in July saying that the 'closing of many voluntary institutions' would take place if the federal government did not allow deductions on corporate philanthropic gifts. An article about the letter was published in The New York Times on July 28th. President Roosevelt replied to Cullman in a July 29th letter saying in part that the hospital could get income from corporations through annual contracts for services instead of donations.
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