Smith, Panetta Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Support Charitable Giving

Washington, DC — Today Representatives Adrian Smith (R-NE) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) introduced the IRA Charitable Rollover Facilitation and Enhancement Act to amend a restriction in the tax code preventing donors from making Qualified Charitable Distributions to donor-advised funds (DAFs). Current law prohibits individuals from using an IRA Charitable Rollover to contribute to a DAF. DAFs allow individuals and families to designate funds for charitable giving upfront and allocate the funds to their preferred charities over a number of years.

The congressmen released the following statements:

"This bill provides seniors with greater flexibility to direct their charitable giving to support the causes they believe in," said Rep. Smith. "This in turn opens the door to empower more American charities to do more good for our communities. I thank Rep. Panetta for joining me to introduce this bipartisan legislation."

"Older Americans can’t use their IRA Charitable Rollovers to give through donor-advised funds,” said Rep. Panetta.  “Our bipartisan bill would fix that by allowing these rollovers to go into DAFs, giving donors the flexibility to give smarter and support a broader range of causes.  This commonsense change empowers generosity, strengthens local communities, and reflects how people actually want to give."

Additional cosponsors of the legislation include Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-FL), Mike Kelly (R-PA), Terri Sewell (D-AL), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Don Beyer (D-VA), Mike Thompson (D-CA), Nathaniel Moran (R-TX), and Kevin Hern (R-OK).

Read text of the bill here.

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