I

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 990

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for charitable

deductions for contributions of food inventory.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 13, 2001

Mr. HALL of Ohio (for himself, Mr. BAKER, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Mr.

RAMSTAD, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. WOLF, Mr. FATTAH, Mr. HOEFFEL, Mr.

LIPINSKI, Mrs. EMERSON, Ms. HART, Mr. MCGOVERN, and Mrs. THURMAN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee

on Ways and Means

A BILL

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide

for charitable deductions for contributions of food inventory.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Good Samaritan Hun5 ger Relief Tax Incentive Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. CHARITABLE DEDUCTION FOR CONTRIBUTIONS OF

7 FOOD INVENTORY.

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (e) of section 170 of

9 the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to certain
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1 contributions of ordinary income and capital gain prop2 erty) is amended by adding at the end the following new

3 paragraph:

4 ‘‘(7) SPECIAL RULE FOR CONTRIBUTIONS OF

5 FOOD INVENTORY.—For purposes of this section—

6 ‘‘(A) CONTRIBUTIONS BY NON-CORPORATE

7 TAXPAYERS.—In the case of a charitable con8 tribution of food by a taxpayer, paragraph

9 (3)(A) shall be applied without regard to wheth10 er or not the contribution is made by a corpora11 tion.

12 ‘‘(B) LIMIT ON REDUCTION.—In the case

13 of a charitable contribution of food which is a

14 qualified contribution (within the meaning of

15 paragraph (3)(A), as modified by subparagraph

16 (A) of this paragraph)—

17 ‘‘(i) paragraph (3)(B) shall not apply,

18 and

19 ‘‘(ii) the reduction under paragraph

20 (1)(A) for such contribution shall be no

21 greater than the amount (if any) by which

22 the amount of such contribution exceeds

23 twice the basis of such food.

24 ‘‘(C) DETERMINATION OF BASIS.—For

25 purposes of this paragraph, if a taxpayer uses
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1 the cash method of accounting, the basis of any

2 qualified contribution of such taxpayer shall be

3 deemed to be 50 percent of the fair market

4 value of such contribution.

5 ‘‘(D) DETERMINATION OF FAIR MARKET

6 VALUE.—In the case of a charitable contribu7 tion of food which is a qualified contribution

8 (within the meaning of paragraph (3), as modi9 fied by subparagraphs (A) and (B) of this para10 graph) and which, solely by reason of internal

11 standards of the taxpayer, lack of market, or

12 similar circumstances, or which is produced by

13 the taxpayer exclusively for the purposes of

14 transferring the food to an organization de15 scribed in paragraph (3)(A), cannot or will not

16 be sold, the fair market value of such contribu17 tion shall be determined—

18 ‘‘(i) without regard to such internal

19 standards, such lack of market, such cir20 cumstances, or such exclusive purpose, and

21 ‘‘(ii) if applicable, by taking into ac22 count the price at which the same or simi23 lar food items are sold by the taxpayer at

24 the time of the contribution (or, if not so

25 sold at such time, in the recent past).’’.
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1 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by

2 subsection (a) shall apply to taxable years beginning after

3 December 31, 2001.

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