Is the income Pledge based on pre-tax income or post-tax income?

In general, we define income as your gross salary, wages, or self-employed income. For most people, this yields a good approximation of what they would consider their income. In cases where it yields something strange, a sensible alternative is to use whatever your government counts as your income for tax purposes.

However, given that some people are able to receive tax benefits on their contributions and some aren't, we think it's also acceptable to base your pledge on pre-tax income if your donations are tax-deductible and post-tax income if they are not. A good general rule of thumb is:

• If you are donating to a charity that is tax-deductible in your country (or Gift Aid eligible in the UK) we recommend basing your giving on your pre-tax income.
  • If you are claiming Gift Aid on your donation and reporting pre-tax income on your pledge then the Gift Aid amount would also count towards your pledge. See "Does Gift Aid count towards my pledge?".
• If you are donating to an organisation that isn't tax-deductible in your country (or Gift Aid eligible in the UK) then you may choose to donate based on post-tax income.

The goal of this advice is to help members stick to their plan of taking significant action to benefit others. All guidelines about how to calculate income should be thought of as serving that goal. In other words, our overall advice is to follow the spirit of the pledge, which is using a significant portion of one's income to benefit others. We recognize that a simple rule won't work perfectly for all possible situations, and encourage pledgers to define 10% of income in the way that makes sense to them. (We are of course always happy to help think through these decisions if you’d like to contact us.)