What will make you donate? : The effect of the Swedish tax credit for charitable giving on giving to charitable organizations

Sammanfattning: Tax credits are very popular and the support for them is very high, but do they actually succeed in having their intended effect? In this thesis I explore if the Swedish tax credit on charitable giving, which was in effect between the years 2012 and 2015, influenced charitable giving. The Swedish tax credit meant that you could deduct 25% of the amount donated if the organization was approved by the Swedish Tax Agency. This is done using a difference-in- difference method, comparing donations to the organizations which got approved by the Swedish Tax Agency and the organizations which did not. I find no evidence that the tax credit on charitable giving influenced charitable giving in Sweden, but because of the large confidence interval it is difficult to interpret the actual size of the tax credit. The tax credit could have an effect on charitable giving, but this thesis could not find it.