March 22, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
Members of the House and Senate are considering measures that would extend tax incentives to older donors who contribute money to charities through their individual retirement accounts.
The incentives are part of the Pension Protection Act, which was passed in August and allows donors older than 70? to transfer up to $100,000 from their individual retirement accounts to charity and avoid any penalty fees.
The IRA provision, however, expires at the end of the year, and some coalitions of charities and fund raisers, such as Independent Sector and the National Committee on Planned Giving, have been lobbying Congress to make the benefit permanent.
Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, and Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, this month introduced legislation that would do just that — and would make the benefit eligible to donors who are older than 59?.
Rep. Earl Pomeroy, another North Dakota Democrat, and Rep. Wally Herger, a California Republican, have introduced similar legislation in the House of Representatives.
Charities have received nearly 3,000 IRA gifts totaling more than $56.8-million since the IRA provision took effect, according to the National Committee on Planned Giving, which has been tracking gifts through an online survey.
