Month: February 2013

The prepared statements of the 42 witnesses from Thursday’s Ways and Means hearing on charitable contributions are available at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/calendar.

The person who got the most attention from committee members was Gene Steuerle, who also happened to be the first witness. I generally agree with his ideas, which probably means they will never get enacted, but I’m reprinting his statement because I think it will have some impact. Another person whose views I generally agree with is Roger Colinvaux, whose statement I have also included. I’ve argued for years that the problems with noncash contributions could be solved by making only cash contributions deductible. In order to get a section 170 deduction, noncash property would have to be sold and then the cash received could then be contributed. Needless to say, I always get a lot of hate mail when I make this recommendation, and so Roger should not be surprised if some brickbats are sent his way for his gentler recommendations. Most of the witnesses argued for leaving section 170 alone. I’m reprinting the statements of Alex Reid and Conrad Teitell as able representatives of the leave it alone or expand it crowd.

1 – Statement of Eugene Steuerle

3 – Statement of Conrad Teitell

4 – Statement of Alexander Reid