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PUBLIC GOOD IRA ROLLOVER ACT (S. 1375)

The PG IRA introduced by Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND)

You can make it happen. Please reproduce this position paper and distribute it widely. Friends don’t let friends miss an opportunity to promote laws that will benefit charities and the people they serve.

THE PG IRA IN A NUTSHELL. Would allow tax-free IRA rollovers for outright charitable gifts and for life-income charitable gifts (unitrusts, annuity trusts, gift annuities, pooled income funds) that would pay fully taxable ordinary income to the IRA owner and/or spouse. When the life interest terminates, all the funds in the rolled-over IRA belong to the named charity or charities. The minimum age for an outright rollover is 70½, and 59½ for a life-income-gift rollover. The rollover is tax-free, but there is no charitable deduction. That’s the case for all IRA rollover proposals.

RECENT HISTORY:

This paper was prepared by Conrad Teitell, 13 Arcadia Road, PO Box 299, Old Greenwich, CT 06870. Phone: (203) 637-4311; Fax: (203) 637-4572; E-mail: Conrad@taxwisegiving.com 

THE PROBLEM. Although all the proposals described above are important, the total cost could well mean—as it has in the past—that nothing is enacted. While charities have varying priorities, virtually all charities believe that enabling donors to make charitable gifts of part or all of their IRAs would significantly increase charitable giving and begin to offset the reduction of charitable gifts that many believe will result from recent tax law changes that decrease and then eliminate the estate tax.

THE SOLUTION—ENACT THE PUBLIC GOOD IRA ROLLOVER ACT (S. 1375) NOW.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Make the case to Senate Finance Committee members (See list on page 4). If your Senator is a member of the Finance Committee, coalitions of charities in your state should seek a meeting with the senator and the senator’s tax aide. Make the trip to Washington or see your senator when he or she is back home. While faxes, e-mails and letters are occasionally helpful, they just don’t do the job.

You’ll get a meeting with your senator if it is requested and attended by top executive officers, influential board members and the senator’s political supporters.

Ask your senator on the Senate Finance Committee to co-sponsor the Public Good IRA (S. 1375) and to support a charitable IRA rollover provision if it is part of another tax bill being reported out of the Finance Committee.

My charity doesn’t have a senator on the Finance Committee. How can I help? Ask your senators to urge their colleagues who are committee members to support the PG IRA Rollover (S. 1375).

"I haven’t heard from (any/many) of my constituents on this," is a frequent comment of legislators on the IRA Charitable Rollover. That’s a good and legitimate rationale for Congressional inaction.

Act now! Time is short! The IRA Charitable Rollover has momentum. But if it’s not enacted this session, we’ll have to start from scratch next year with a new Congress.

SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND STAFF

Max Baucus, D-MT – Chairman

Tax aides: Russ Sullivan, Mitchell Kent, Pat Heck, Maria Freese

Office #: 202-224-2651; Staff #: 202-224-5315; Fax #:202-228-3904

John Rockefeller IV, D-WV

Tax aide: Ellen Doneski

Office #: 202-224-6472; Staff #: 202-224-5663; Fax #: 202-224-7665

Tom Daschle, D-SD – Senate Majority Leader

Tax aides: Chuck Marr, Timothy Hogan

Office #: 202-224-2321; Staff #: 202-224-3809 (Marr), 202-224-9040 (Hogan); Fax #: 202-228-4538

John Breaux, D-LA

Tax aides: Rebecca Hawes, Lindsay Spiller

Office #: 202-224-4623; Staff #: 202-224-9741 (Hawes), 202-224-9749 (Spiller); Fax #: 202-228-2577

Kent Conrad, D-ND

Tax aides: Steve Bailey, Sarah Kuehl

Office #: 202-224-2043; Staff #: 202-224-2835 (Bailey), 202-224-0559 (Kuehl); Fax #: 202-224-7776

Bob Graham, D-FL

Tax aides: Bob Greenawalt, Dana Stefanelli

Office #: 202-224-3041; Staff #: 202-224-1536 (Greenawalt), 202-224-7912 (Steffanelli); Fax #: 202-224-2237

Jim Jeffords, Ind-VT

Tax aide: Jeff Fox

Office #: 202-224-5141; Staff #: 202-224-5262; Fax #: 202-228-0776

Jeff Bingaman, D-NM

Tax aide: James Dennis

Office #: 202-224-5521; Staff #:202-224-6490; Fax #: 202-224-2852

John Kerry, D-MA

Tax aides: Ryan McCormick, Jeff Hamond

Office #: 202-224-2742; Staff #: 202-224-7054 (McCormick), 202-224-4422 (Hamond); Fax #: 202-228-1411

Blanche Lincoln, D-AR

Tax aide: Mac Campbell

Office #: 202-224-4843; Staff #: 202-224-6384; Fax #: 202-228-1371

Charles Grassley, R-IA – Ranking Minority Member

Tax aides: Mark Prater, Ed McClellan, Brig Pari, Elizabeth Paris, Dean Zerbe, Diann Howland

Office #: 202-224-3744; Staff #: 202-224-5315; Fax #: 202-228-1703

Orin Hatch, R-UT

Tax aide: Evan Liddiard

Office #: 202-224-5251; Staff: 202-224-0619; Fax #: 202-224-6311

Frank Murkowski, R-AK

Tax aide: Alexander Polinsky

Office #: 202-224-6665; Staff #: 202-224-6665; Fax #: 202-224-5301

Don Nickles, R-OK

Tax aides: Hazen Marshall, Lee Morris

Office #: 202-224-5754; Staff #: 202-224-2708 (Marshall), 202-224-5754 (Morris); Fax #: 202-224-6008

Phil Gramm, R-TX

Tax aide: Steve McMillin

Office #: 202-224-2934; Staff #: 202-224-2934; Fax #: 202-228-2856

Trent Lott, R-MS – Senate Minority Leader

Tax aide: Keith Hennessey

Office #: 202-224-6253; Staff #:202-224-6253; Fax #: 202-224-2262

Fred Thompson, R-TN

Tax aide: Rachel Jones

Office #: 202 224-4944; Staff #: 202-224-4944; Fax #: 202-228-3679

Olympia Snowe, R-ME

Tax aide: Tom Geier

Office #: 202-224-5344; Staff #: 202-224-5344; Fax #: 202-224-1946

John Kyl, R-AZ

Tax aide: Laurence Wilcox

Office #: 202-224-4521; Staff #: 202 224-4521; Fax #: 202-224-2207

Craig Thomas, R-WY

Tax aides: Bryn Stewart, Mike Moran

Office #: 202-224-6441; Staff #: 202-224-6441; Fax #: 202-224-1724

In the aftermath of September 11, the best ways to communicate are by phone and fax. E-mail is generally a distant third. Congressional staff e-mail addresses are in a standard format—e.g., russ_sullivan@baucus.senate.gov.

PUBLIC GOOD IRA ROLLOVER ACT (S. 1375)

(Introduced by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND)

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow tax-free distributions from individual retirement accounts for charitable purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SEC. 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the "Public Good IRA Rollover Act."

SEC. 2. TAX-FREE DISTRIBUTIONS FROM INDIVIDUAL RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS FOR CHARITABLE PURPOSES.

(a) In General.—Subsection (d) of section 408 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to individual retirement accounts) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

"(8) Distributions for charitable purposes.—

"(A) In general.—No amount shall be includible in gross income by reason of a qualified charitable distribution from an individual retirement account to an organization described in section 170(c).

"(B) Special rules relating to charitable remainder trusts, pooled income funds, and charitable gift annuities.—

"(i) In general.—No amount shall be includible in gross income by reason of a qualified charitable distribution from an individual retirement account—

"(I) to a charitable remainder annuity trust or a charitable remainder unitrust (as such terms are defined in section 664(d)),

"(II) to a pooled income fund (as defined in section 642(c)(5)), or

"(III) for the issuance of a charitable gift annuity (as defined in section 501(m)(5)).

The preceding sentence shall apply only if no person holds an income interest in the amounts in the trust, fund, or annuity attributable to such distribution other than one or more of the following: the individual for whose benefit such account is maintained, the spouse of such individual, or any organization described in section 170(c).

"(ii) Determination of inclusion of amounts dis- tributed.—In determining the amount includible in the gross income of any person by reason of a payment or distribution from a trust referred to in clause (i)(I) or a charitable gift annuity (as so defined), the portion of any qualified charitable distribution to such trust or for such annuity which would (but for this subparagraph) have been includible in gross income—

"(I) shall be treated as income described in section 664(b)(1), and

"(II) shall not be treated as an investment in the contract.

"(iii) No inclusion for distribution to pooled income fund.—No amount shall be includible in the gross income of a pooled income fund (as so defined) by reason of a qualified charitable distribution to such fund.

"(C) Qualified charitable distribution.—For purposes of this paragraph, the term ‘qualified charitable distribution’ means any distribution from an individual retirement account—

"(i) which is made on or after the date that the individual for whose benefit the account is maintained has attained age 70½, except that with respect to any distribution to a trust, fund, or annuity referred to in subparagraph (B) which is made on or after the date that the individual for whose benefit the account is maintained has attained age 59½, and"

"(ii) which is made directly from the account to—

"(I) an organization described in section 170(c), or

"(II) a trust, fund, or annuity referred to in subparagraph (B).

"(D) Denial of deduction.—Qualified charitable distributions shall not be taken into account in determining the deduction under Section 170."

(b) Effective Date.—The amendment made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2001.

 

Taxwise Giving & Philanthropy Tax Institute

PO Box 299, Old Greenwich, CT 06870-0299

Email Conrad: cteitell@cl-law.com

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