Bill would block gifts to donor-advised funds

Legislation allowing charitable donations from IRAs to individual charities will not include similar donations to donor-advised funds. That was the indication given by Roger Colinveaux, legislation counsel to the Joint Committee on Taxation, who spoke today at a conference in Washington on tax exempt charitable organizations. Legislation passed by the House of Representatives before Thanksgiving would extend for one year a provision of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 that allows IRA owners to make contributions from their accounts directly to charities without having to report the IRA income first as income for tax purposes, Mr. Colinveaux noted. Some groups have lobbied to expand the provision to include donor-advised funds and charitable supporting organizations as possible recipients of IRA donations. “In order to get something done by the end of the year it’s much easier to move things as a package as they already are in the law,” Mr. Colinveaux said. “It’s much harder to make substantive modifications to provisions and still get them passed.” The Senate has yet to act on extending tax provisions.