The Associated Press reported on U.S. Senators Angus King (I-Maine) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introducing the Accelerating Charitable Efforts (ACE) Act that would “tighten the rules for DAFs and aim to speed donations to charities.” As the story noted, “Wealthy philanthropists have long enjoyed an advantageous way to give to charity: Using something called a donor-advised fund, they’ve been able to enjoy tax deductions and investment gains on their donations long before they give the money away.”
Below are some notable quotes from the story:
Sen. Angus King (I-ME): “This is about as common sense a bill as I’ve ever seen. The idea of getting a tax deduction today for money that may not be paid out for 50 years makes no sense. I understand you might want to put it into a fund and have someone else manage it. But it’s got to go out within a reasonable period of time. Otherwise, it’s an abuse of the tax code.”
John Arnold, a Texas-based billionaire and co-chair of Arnold Ventures: “The money was just sitting [in DAFs] growing. There wasn’t any intent of abuse of the system. But the money was just building up because there was no forcing mechanism.”
Paul Major, the CEO of the Colorado-based Telluride Foundation: “Community foundations’ business models are based on asset management. They charge fees, and that’s how they fund their operations. If they have less money to manage, they bring in less fees.”
Paul Major, the CEO of the Colorado-based Telluride Foundation: “But the objective of charitable giving is not to manage more money. The objective is to put the money to work.”
Sen. Angus King (I-ME): “I haven’t met anybody yet that I’ve described it to who does anything but say, ‘Why didn’t we do this a long time ago?’”
Read the full story by the Associated Press here.