President Bush has signed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which extends for 2008 and 2009 an expired provision permitting IRA owners, age 70½ and older, to make distributions to qualified charities of up to $100,000 per year (Tax Extenders and Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act of 2008, H.R. 1424).
Ruth Weaver, Christian Church Foundation’s senior vice president, said this two-year provision can help donors with small IRAs who don’t want to bother with them, or donors who already receive the maximum charitable tax deductions yet still want to be more philanthropic. She also said congregations could benefit from the IRA charitable giving provision, especially in cases where a donor would like to make a gift to a capital campaign. No income tax deductions are available for IRA "qualified charitable distributions," but donors may save taxes anyway, where gifts take the place of required minimum distributions (which otherwise are 100 percent taxable). To read more, go to: www.disciples.org/ccf/news/irarollover.asp
