Charities Shouldn’t Expect IRA Incentive to Stay, Expert Says

An incentive that allows older people to donate money from their individual retirement accounts to charities tax-free is scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

And Marc Carmichael, president of R&R Newkirk, a Willow Springs, Ill., company that helps charities seek planned gifts, is advising fund raisers not to expect Congress to extend the incentive.

At least two proposals are circulating through Congress that would make the IRA incentive permanent.

But Mr. Carmichael, speaking at this week’s National Committee on Planned Giving Conference in Grapevine, Texas, said donors who are considering making IRA gifts should move quickly.

“We should take the position with donors that it is not going to be extended,” he said.

He added, to laughter, that it is not often that fund raisers who seek bequests, trusts, and other planned gifts have the option of expressing a sense of urgency to their donors.