Senate Finance Releases One Big Beautiful Bill Act Text

A skeet on Bluesky yesterday alerted me to the fact that the Senate Finance Committee has released its version of the House’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. And the Senate’s current version is much nicer to tax-exempt organizations than the House’s was. I ran through the issues raised in the skeet, and based on my read (and Ctrl-F), here are a couple changes:

Transportation Fringes

In the House bill, section 112024 increased a tax-exempt organization’s unrelated business taxable income by the amount of qualified transportation fringe it provided, the qualified parking it paid for, and the disallowed entertainment expenses it incurred. (The bill made an exception for church organizations.) The Senate bill seems to have dropped this altogether–I couldn’t find any amendment to section 512.

Excise Tax on Investment Income of Private Colleges

The House bill, section 112021, imposes a tiered excise tax on college and university investment income. The rate starts at 1.4% on income between $500,000 and $750,000 and rises to 21% on income in excess of $2 million.

The Senate bill doesn’t eliminate this tiered excise tax, but it reduces the rates. Under section 70415, while the rates would continue to start at 1.4%, they max out at 8% on income in excess of $2 million.

Nonitemizer Charitable Deduction   

The House bill, section 110112, takes the temporary $300 (or $600 for married taxpayers filing jointly) charitable deduction for nonitemizers and does two things to it. First, it halves the amount, but second, it extends the nonitemizer charitable deduction through 2028.

The Senate bill, section 70424, makes the deduction permanent. Oh, and also raises the amount to $1,000 ($2,000 for married taxpayers filing joint returns).

Samuel D. Brunson