About the bill
Americans donated $410 billion to charity last year, but would you like to receive a tax break for donating to charity?
Only one-third of Americans are right now. This bill could change that.
Context
Under current law, only Americans who itemize their tax returns are eligible to receive tax breaks for donating to charities or nonprofits. Those who take the standard deduction instead are generally ineligible.
The problem is that the people who itemize their returns skew much wealthier. Only one-third of Americans itemize.
“Under our current tax code, only taxpayers in the highest tax brackets are encouraged to give back,” the Greater Give writes. “This system establishes an unfair correlation between wealth and one’s ability and desire to give back, when in fact all Americans want to …
Sponsor and status
Erik Paulsen
Sponsor. Representative for Minnesota's 3rd congressional district. Republican.
115th Congress (2017–2019)
This bill was introduced on July 26, 2018, in a previous session of Congress, but it did not receive a vote.
Although this bill was not enacted, its provisions could have become law by being included in another bill. It is common for legislative text to be introduced concurrently in multiple bills (called companion bills), re-introduced in subsequent sessions of Congress in new bills, or added to larger bills (sometimes called omnibus bills).
6 Cosponsors (3 Republicans, 3 Democrats)
Position statements
What legislators are saying
“Paulsen Bill Spurs Charitable Giving, Creates Tax-Advantaged \"Flexible Giving Accounts\"”
—
Rep. Erik Paulsen [R-MN3, 2009-2018]
(Sponsor)
on Aug 3, 2018
“Pascrell Cheers House Passage of Bipartisan Traumatic Brain Injury Reauthorization Act”
—
Rep. Bill Pascrell [D-NJ9]
on Dec 11, 2018
History
Jul 26, 2018
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Introduced
Bills and resolutions are referred to committees which debate the bill before possibly sending it on to the whole chamber. |
H.R. 6616 (115th) was a bill in the United States Congress.
A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then be signed by the President to become law.
Bills numbers restart every two years. That means there are other bills with the number H.R. 6616. This is the one from the 115th Congress.
This bill was introduced in the 115th Congress, which met from Jan 3, 2017 to Jan 3, 2019. Legislation not passed by the end of a Congress is cleared from the books.
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GovTrack automatically collects legislative information from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sources. This page is sourced primarily from Congress.gov, the official portal of the United States Congress. Congress.gov is generally updated one day after events occur, and so legislative activity shown here may be one day behind. Data via the congress project.