Government Relations

Legislative Bulletin

April 24, 2009

Expanded IRA Charitable Rollover Introduced in Senate

On Wednesday (4-22-09), Senators. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) introduced the Public Good IRA Rollover Act (S. 864). This legislation would make the IRA Charitable Rollover permanent, remove the $100,000 annual limit on donations, provide IRA owners with a planned giving option starting at age 59½, and allow for distributions to supporting organizations, donor-advised funds, and private foundations. S. 864 has 10 original cosponsors, including four Democratic members and one Republican member of the Senate Finance Committee. Companion legislation (H.R. 1250) was introduced in the House last month.

During his introductory remarks, Sen. Dorgan recognized the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning for our support of this legislation and cited PPP's IRA rollover survey results as evidence that the current-law rollover has "been very exciting for many in the charitable community." Sen. Dorgan also read a letter from the Partnership into the Congressional Record.

The Public Good IRA Rollover Act, which is virtually identical to legislation promoted by the Partnership in previous Congresses, would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to expand tax-free distributions from individual retirement accounts for charitable purposes. The current law IRA Charitable Rollover allows individuals age 70½ and older to make outright charitable donations of up to $100,000 from IRAs and Roth IRAs without having to count the distributions as taxable income. That provision is set to expire in December 2009.