Adam Chodorow

Professor Adam Chodorow’s article, “Charitable FSAs: A Proposal to Combine Healthcare and Charitable Giving Tax Provisions,” has been picked up on various blogs and is forthcoming in the Brigham Young University Law Review.

The article considers two unrelated tax provisions, healthcare Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and the charitable deduction. FSAs permit eligible taxpayers to set income aside tax-free to use for medical expenses. However, these accounts have a “use-it-or-lose-it” feature that discourages participation and creates incentives for unnecessary spending at year-end. The charitable deduction is available only to those who itemize their deductions, thus negating the incentive to give for the 65 percent of taxpayers who take the standard deduction. Chodorow proposes combining the two provisions by allowing taxpayers to donate unused FSA amounts to charity.

To read the article, which has been posted on TaxProf Blog and the Nonprofit Law Prof Blog, click here.

Chodorow’s research and teaching interests lie in tax, administrative and regulatory law. He teaches a variety of tax courses, as well as Law and the Regulatory State. His research focuses on religious taxation and a variety of contemporary tax issues, such as the taxability of virtual income.