More Than 80 Leading Charitable Organizations Join IS Urging House and Senate Conferees to Make Changes in Tax Reconciliation Legislation

(Washington, D.C., March 1, 2006) – Independent Sector and 80 leading charitable organizations delivered a letter this week urging House and Senate leaders to include a comprehensive package of charitable tax incentives and reforms in the Tax Relief Act of 2005 (H.R. 4297). The letter voices support for tax incentives that would spur greater charitable giving and reforms that would enhance oversight of charitable activities, but calls for House and Senate conferees to drop or revise five provisions that could harm the ability of charitable organizations to provide needed services to the community.

The organizations, which include key charities such as the American Association of Museums, the American Heart Association, the Land Trust Alliance, the Salvation Army, United Way of America, and the YMCA of the USA, are urging the House and Senate conferees to include provisions that will allow older Americans to make charitable contributions from their retirement accounts without suffering adverse tax consequences and that will permit all taxpayers to claim a tax deduction for total charitable giving over $210 for single taxpayers and $420 for joint filers.

Their letter expresses strong support for reforms that reflect recommendations of the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector, a yearlong effort by the charitable community to improve governance, ethical conduct and transparency of charitable organizations.  The organizations oppose five specific changes to tax laws that were not recommended by the Panel and would be detrimental to the work of charitable groups.

“With the proper revisions, this bill will support the important work that charitable organizations do in every community in our country,” said Diana Aviv , president and CEO of Independent Sector.  “It will also advance ethical conduct within the charitable community.”

The letter expressly asks House and Senate leaders to make changes to provisions in the Senate bill that would impose costly certification requirements on larger nonprofits that have unrelated business income; prohibit donor-advised funds in community foundations and other organizations from making grants to domestic and international organizations that do not meet specific legal requirements; and restrict private foundation grants for supporting organizations that provide critical funding and services to a wide variety of educational institutions, health care facilities, and other charitable institutions.  In addition, the organizations oppose the application of strict private foundation self-dealing rules to supporting organizations and confusing restrictions on payments from donor-advised funds to their sponsoring organizations.

Leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee are expected to meet next week to resolve differences between the versions of the bill passed earlier by the Senate and the House.  Charitable giving incentives and reforms were included in the Senate bill, but not in the version passed by the House.

To read the read the full text of the letter or to read more about the bill, visit http://www.independentsector.org/programs/gr/charityreform.html .

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Independent Sector is a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of approximately 600 charities, foundations, and corporate philanthropy 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 charitable community.