House Bill Would Extend Charitable Tax Incentives

Rep. Charles Rangel, the New York Democrat who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, has introduced legislation that would extend a variety of charitable tax incentives for another year.

The bill, H.R. 4213, would allow people age 70½ and older to continue making charitable donations of up to $100,000 a year from their individual retirement accounts without having to pay taxes on the distribution.

It would also extend tax measures to encourage donations of property, food inventory, books to public schools, and computer equipment for educational purposes.

The charitable provisions — part of a broader bill to extend more than 40 tax breaks that are scheduled to expire at the end of 2009 — would cost more than $1-billion over 10 years, according to a summary. The IRA measure would account for more than half of that amount ($591-million).

The House is expected to vote on the bill on Wednesday.