I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1607
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow tax-free distributions 
from individual retirement accounts for charitable purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 13, 2005
Mr. HERGER (for himself and Mr. POMEROY) 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 allow tax-
free distributions from individual retirement accounts for 
charitable purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Public Good IRA Roll-
over Act’’. 
SEC. 2. TAX-FREE DISTRIBUTIONS FROM INDIVIDUAL RE-
TIREMENT 
ACCOUNTS 
FOR 
CHARITABLE 
PURPOSES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (d) of section 408 of 
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to individual
retirement accounts) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new paragraph: 
‘‘(8) DISTRIBUTIONS
FOR
CHARITABLE
PUR-
POSES.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—No amount shall be 
includible in gross income by reason of a quali-
fied charitable distribution. 
‘‘(B) QUALIFIED
CHARITABLE
DISTRIBU-
TION.—For purposes of this paragraph, the 
term ‘qualified charitable distribution’ means 
any distribution from an individual retirement 
account—
‘‘(i) which is made directly by the 
trustee—
‘‘(I) to an organization described 
in section 170(c), or 
‘‘(II) to a split-interest entity, 
and 
‘‘(ii) which is made on or after the 
date that the individual for whose benefit 
the account is maintained has attained—
‘‘(I) in the case of any distribu-
tion described in clause (i)(I), age 
701⁄2, and
‘‘(II) in the case of any distribu-
tion described in clause (i)(II), age 
591⁄2. 
A distribution shall be treated as a qualified 
charitable distribution only to the extent that 
the distribution would be includible in gross in-
come without regard to subparagraph (A) and, 
in the case of a distribution to a split-interest 
entity, only if no person holds an income inter-
est in the amounts in the split-interest entity 
attributable to such distribution other than one 
or more of the following: the individual for 
whose benefit such account is maintained, the 
spouse of such individual, or any organization 
described in section 170(c). 
‘‘(C) CONTRIBUTIONS
MUST
BE
OTHER-
WISE DEDUCTIBLE.—For purposes of this para-
graph—
‘‘(i) DIRECT CONTRIBUTIONS.—A dis-
tribution to an organization described in 
section 170(c) shall be treated as a quali-
fied charitable distribution only if a deduc-
tion for the entire distribution would be al-
lowable under section 170 (determined
without regard to subsection (b) thereof 
and this paragraph). 
‘‘(ii) SPLIT-INTEREST GIFTS.—A dis-
tribution to a split-interest entity shall be 
treated as a qualified charitable distribu-
tion only if a deduction for the entire value 
of the interest in the distribution for the 
use of an organization described in section 
170(c) would be allowable under section 
170 (determined without regard to sub-
section (b) thereof and this paragraph). 
‘‘(D) APPLICATION OF SECTION 72.—Not-
withstanding section 72, in determining the ex-
tent to which a distribution is a qualified chari-
table distribution, the entire amount of the dis-
tribution shall be treated as includible in gross 
income without regard to subparagraph (A) to 
the extent that such amount does not exceed 
the aggregate amount which would be so includ-
ible if all amounts were distributed from all in-
dividual retirement accounts otherwise taken 
into account in determining the inclusion on 
such distribution under section 72. Proper ad-
justments shall be made in applying section 72
to other distributions in such taxable year and 
subsequent taxable years. 
‘‘(E) SPECIAL RULES FOR SPLIT-INTEREST 
ENTITIES.—
‘‘(i) 
CHARITABLE
REMAINDER 
TRUSTS.—Notwithstanding section 664(b), 
distributions made from a trust described 
in subparagraph (G)(i) shall be treated as 
ordinary income in the hands of the bene-
ficiary to whom is paid the annuity de-
scribed in section 664(d)(1)(A) or the pay-
ment described in section 664(d)(2)(A). 
‘‘(ii) POOLED
INCOME
FUNDS.—No 
amount shall be includible in the gross in-
come of a pooled income fund (as defined 
in subparagraph (G)(ii)) by reason of a 
qualified charitable distribution to such 
fund, and all distributions from the fund 
which are attributable to qualified chari-
table distributions shall be treated as ordi-
nary income to the beneficiary. 
‘‘(iii) 
CHARITABLE
GIFT
ANNU-
ITIES.—Qualified charitable distributions 
made for a charitable gift annuity shall not
be treated as an investment in the con-
tract. 
‘‘(F) DENIAL
OF
DEDUCTION.—Qualified 
charitable distributions shall not be taken into 
account in determining the deduction under sec-
tion 170. 
‘‘(G) SPLIT-INTEREST ENTITY DEFINED.—
For purposes of this paragraph, the term ‘split-
interest entity’ means—
‘‘(i) a charitable remainder annuity 
trust or a charitable remainder unitrust 
(as such terms are defined in section 
664(d)) which must be funded exclusively 
by qualified charitable distributions, 
‘‘(ii) a pooled income fund (as defined 
in section 642(c)(5)), but only if the fund 
accounts separately for amounts attrib-
utable to qualified charitable distributions, 
and 
‘‘(iii) a charitable gift annuity (as de-
fined in section 501(m)(5)).’’. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 
this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after 
December 31, 2004.
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