R. Madoff on DAFs

Ray D. Madoff (Boston College) has published It’s Time to Reform Donor-Advised Funds in Tax Notes (subscription required) and written a related NY Times Op-Ed titled Tax Write-Off Now, Charity Later.  Here is the summary of the Tax Notes article:

In this article, Madoff argues that the current law governing donor-advised funds provides too much of a benefit to donors and sponsoring organizations, without ensuring sufficient benefit to the charitable sector as a whole. Moreover, the current rules undermine the integrity of the tax system by implicating the government in a “wink and a nod” system that disproportionately benefits the wealthy. To remedy these problems, donor-advised funds should be subject to a seven-year payout requirement, and the rules should be revised to ensure that private foundations cannot satisfy their payout obligations simply by making transfers to a donor-advised fund.

LHM