(WASHINGTON, April 3, 2008) -- Diana Aviv, president and CEO of Independent Sector, today testified before the Senate Finance Committee at its hearing on “Outside the Box on Estate Tax Reform: Reviewing Ideas to Simplify Planning.” In her testimony, Ms. Aviv focused on the impact that the estate tax has had on charitable organizations’ ability to serve the American people and proposed ways for the Committee and the nonprofit community to work together to deter ongoing and future abuses associated with estate planning.

Ms. Aviv noted how the estate tax strongly encourages Americans to give back to their communities both during their lifetimes and through their estates, while providing significant revenue to support government-funded programs that are vital to sustaining healthy communities. Citing statistics from the Congressional Budget Office and Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Ms. Aviv explained that a repeal of the estate tax would result in a significant decline in charitable donations from wealthy Americans and a loss of over $500 billion in federal tax revenues over a ten-year period.

“The estate tax provides a stream of funding that is essential for the services charitable organizations perform to enrich lives and strengthen communities across the nation and around the world,” said Diana Aviv, president and CEO of Independent Sector. “We look forward to working with the Senate Finance Committee on preserving this critical giving incentive and ensuring our nonprofit community’s compliance with the tax laws.”

Recognizing that unscrupulous individuals may try to take advantage of the estate tax to provide inappropriate financial benefits to themselves and their family members, Ms. Aviv proposed three reforms to root out fraudulent conduct: adequate funding for Internal Revenue Service enforcement programs; enhanced compliance through electronic filing of tax returns; and reform of the rules governing charitable lead trusts, which allow a donor to put a sum of money into a trust to provide an annual stream of revenue to a charity for an ascertainable period of time and leave remaining funds to the donor’s heirs. Ms. Aviv also highlighted the work of the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector, convened by Independent Sector in 2004 at the encouragement of the Committee, in educating the nonprofit community about the importance of strong self-governance, tax-law compliance, and meeting the highest standards of ethical practice.

Read Ms. Aviv's:

• Written Testimony (PDF)
• Oral Testimony (PDF)
  

Independent Sector is a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of approximately 550 charities, foundations, and corporate giving programs, collectively representing tens of thousands of charitable groups in every state across the nation. Its mission is to advance the common good by leading, strengthening, and mobilizing the nonprofit and philanthropic community.