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Tax Incentives for Charity: An Overview of Legislative Proposals , Record No.: RS21144, Date: May 19, 2003 1 (May 19, 2003)

handle is hein.tera/crstax0060 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS21144
Updated May 19, 2003
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Tax Incentives for Charity:
An Overview of Legislative Proposals
Jane G. Gravelle
Senior Specialist in Economic Policy
Government and Finance Division
Summary
This reports describes and, in some cases, briefly discusses, the tax provisions of
the Community Solutions Act (H.R. 7, which passed the House on July 19, 2001). The
provisions include charitable deductions for non-itemizers, rollovers of IRAs into
charitable uses, a reduction in the excise tax on private foundation income, an increase
in the deductions cap for corporate contributions, and several narrower provisions
relating to business contributions of property and charitable remainder trusts. In 2002,
the Senate Finance Committee also reported a substitute that included a number of
similar provisions (The CARE Act of 2002), along with some revenue offsets (user fees
and corporate tax shelters), which never saw floor action. A similar bill, S. 476. has
been adopted by the Senate on April 9, 2003.
The Community Solutions Act of 2001 (H.R. 7), which passed the House on July 19,
2001 had eight new tax provisions designed to benefit charities and charitable giving.
The bill also contained provisions relating to charitable choice (directed at religious
organizations' role in administering government programs).' According to the Joint
Committee on Taxation, the charitable tax benefit provisions were projected to cost $13.3
billion over 10 years; when fully phased in they cost $2.4 billion on an annual basis. The
President proposed three of these tax provisions in his original 2001 tax proposal, but
these provisions were not included in the 2001 tax cut (P.L. 107-16). The President
continued to propose revisions; his FY2004 tax proposals included most of these
provisions but did not include the increase in limits for corporate contributions. S. 1924,
introduced in the Senate in the 107th Congress by Senators Lieberman and Santorum after
discussion with the President, would provide a temporary non-itemizers deduction with
a higher cap. The Senate Finance Committee reported out a version of the bill on June 18,
2002, the CARE Act of 2002 with a temporary non-itemizers deduction with both a floor
and ceiling. It excluded some provisions of H.R. 7 but contained others. A similar bill,

Congressional Research Service A+ The Library of Congress

' For a discussion of charitable choice provisions, see CRS Report RS20948, Charitable Choice
Provisions ofHR. 7.

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