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Income tax credits for donations to community foundations proposed
TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News
Published: October 20, 2014
Proposed legislation that would provide tax credits for donations to community foundation endowment funds has been shifted to the Ohio Senate.
The proposed legislation, House Bill 408, jointly sponsored by Reps. Barbara Sears and Ron Amstutz, would authorize an income tax credit for donations to the permanent endowment fund of an eligible community foundation and limit total credits to $20 million annually.
Before the measure moved out of the House in an 84-9 vote, Cara Dingus Brook, president and CEO of the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio, stumped for the bill before the House Finance and Appropriations Committee.
“While building strong community foundations is vital to establishing an ecosystem for local success, one of the difficulties we face is that many of our communities have never experienced or imagined a locally-directed source of community endowment,” she said.
“One way the tax credit will help is by increasing awareness of the opportunity of community foundation endowment to advance sustainable community and economic development.”
Dingus Brook pointed to shale development’s creation of “significant wealth” as giving the situation a reason for urgency in Eastern Ohio.
“With this new wealth, comes a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us to retain resources for the current and future prosperity of our citizens,” she said.
“Let me offer this example, a couple of years ago our foundation began work with a family in Harrison County who experienced a windfall from an oil and gas lease and decided to establish ... the Harrison County Community Foundation fund.”
Dingus Brook said the fund marked a new day for the community and reported that many donors have added investments to the original gifts.
“The tax credit would help to raise the profile on the benefits of community endowment, encouraging even more investment in areas like Harrison County experiencing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to retain wealth associated with shale.”
If HB 408 is enacted, the Ohio Department of Taxation would administer the tax credit and the tax commissioner would be required to request information from recipient community foundations about donations for which a tax credit could be claimed.
In addition, the tax commissioner would be charged with preparing an annual report each year from 2015 to 2019 regarding the number and amount of donations made and tax credits received under the bill.
“Lives are being transformed through the gifts donors are making to community foundations,” Dingus Brook said.
“The motto of our tax credit proposal is Endow Ohio: For Good, Forever. What gets me so excited about the potential of this credit is to think about what it will return — not just in the next 10 years — but far beyond all of our lifetimes.”
HB 408 has been assigned to the Senate Finance Committee.
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