Last week, the House voted to renew most extenders for one year — restoring them for the current 2014 tax year so that companies and individuals can make use of the breaks when filing their 2014 tax returns. The Senate expects to clear that measure in the coming days.
Today, the House considered HR 5806, the Support America’s Charitities Act, which would make permanent a number of popular charitable tax provisions related to food contributions, conservation property and contributions from certain retirement accounts to charitable entities..
The measure’s provisions were previously passed by the House as part of December’s one-year tax extender bill (HR5771) passed last week. This measure, however, makes these provisions permanent.
Of not for universities, the legislation would make permanent the rule allowing certain tax-free distributions from individual retirement accounts (IRAs) for charitable purposes. Taxpayers must be at least 70-and-a-half years old and make distributions of $100,000 or less per year directly to a qualifying charitable organization. According to the House Ways and Means Committee, in the first two years that the IRA provision was available, it led to more than $140 million in charitable donations, with the median gift just under $4,500. The Joint Committee on Tax has previously estimated that enacting this provision would reduce revenues, and thus increase federal budget deficits, by about $8.4 billion over 10 years.
The measure is noncontroversial and is expected to pass under suspension of the rules. It is unlikely the Senate will consider the bill. The Administration issued a Statement of Administrative Policy against the legislation, which included a veto threat.