Charities Helping Americans Regularly Throughout the Year Act
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Charities Helping Americans Regularly Throughout the Year Act
This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to modify several tax provisions affecting charitable contributions and tax-exempt organizations.
The bill excludes from the gross income of an individual who is at least 70-1/2 years of age up to $100,000 in distributions from an individual retirement plan to a donor-advised fund (DAF).
(A DAF is a fund or account that is separately identified by reference to contributions of a donor or donors. The account is owned and controlled by a sponsoring charitable organization, while the donor retains advisory privileges with respect to the distribution and investment of funds in the account.)
Sponsors of DAFs must disclose in their returns specified details regarding: (1) policies on inactive or dormant funds, and (2) average aggregate contributions to and grants made from the funds during the most recent three-year period.
The bill reduces from 2% to 1% the excise tax on the investment income of private foundations and eliminates a provision that reduces the rate to 1% if a foundation meets certain distribution requirements.
Tax-exempt organizations must file their returns in electronic form, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) must make the returns available to the public in a machine readable format as soon as practicable. The IRS may delay the requirement for up to two years for certain small organizations.
The IRS may determine the standard mileage rate for deducting the cost of using a passenger automobile for charitable purposes (currently set by statute at 14 cents per mile), and the rate may not be less than the rate for medical purposes (19 cents per mile for 2016).
The bill exempts certain philanthropic business holdings from the tax on excess business holdings of private foundations if a foundation meets requirements for exclusive ownership, donating all profits to charity, and independent operation.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on April 6, 2016. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on April 6, 2016: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 114th Congress (2015-16), 329 of the 10,233 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.2 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
John Thune (R-SD) introduced it on April 6, 2016, and 18 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 10 Democrats, 8 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on April 6, 2016, 3809 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 3809 days ago, on April 6, 2016.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 114th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2017 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers