Dean Zerbe, former Senior Counsel and Tax Counsel to the Senate Finance Committee, recently welcomed the Initiative to Accelerate Charitable Giving’s reforms in an op-ed in Forbes entitled “A Bipartisan Opportunity To Help Those In Need: Charity Reform.” In the piece, Zerbe outlined how these reforms will get resources to working charities with little cost to taxpayers.
Some excerpts from Zerbe’s op-ed below:
“[T]he IACG proposal will ensure that the billions of dollars currently gathering dust in DAFs go to charities that are helping the poor and improving our communities. We have a tax incentive for charitable donations that has encouraged over $140 billion dollars to be given for charities – but is not being used by charities. Without reform, DAFs are essentially an incredibly expensive taxpayer-subsidized jobs program for money managers on Wall Street.”
“While the commonsense IACG reforms have benefitted from a significant amount of bipartisan support – I am most heartened that two of the leading lights in the charitable sector overall Craig Kennedy and William Schambra (and certainly two of the most respected and knowledgeable voice on charities for conservatives) have written in favor of the IACG reforms. The support of these two eminent thinkers for charitable reform is in keeping with the strong push for charitable reform made by Republican lawmakers over the past several years.”
“[A]n area that was considered small and isolated (although with much potential for abuse) – the donation to DAFs of closely held stock and other similar nonmarketable items – has grown by leaps and bounds. DAFs are converting the private philanthropy conservatives want into a tax benefit program for money managers. The IACG reforms build closely on the charitable reforms first put forward by Chairman Grassley – and gets us moving back to core principles that both sides of the aisle can agree on – that charitable donations should be getting into the hands of working charities that are helping the poor and our communities.”
Read the full op-ed here.