[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 37 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 37

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for a charitable 
             deduction for contributions of food inventory.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 22, 2001

  Mr. Lugar (for himself, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Harkin, Mr. 
 Roberts, Mr. Dodd, Mr. DeWine, Mr. Reid, Mr. Santorum, Mr. Bayh, and 
 Mr. Johnson) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
                  referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for a charitable 
             deduction for contributions of food inventory.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Good Samaritan Hunger Relief Tax 
Incentive Act''.

SEC. 2. CHARITABLE DEDUCTION FOR CONTRIBUTIONS OF FOOD INVENTORY.

    (a) In General.--Subsection (e) of section 170 of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to certain contributions of ordinary 
income and capital gain property) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new paragraph:
            ``(7) Special rule for contributions of food inventory.--
        For purposes of this section--
                    ``(A) Contributions by non-corporate taxpayers.--In 
                the case of a charitable contribution of food by a 
                taxpayer, paragraph (3)(A) shall be applied without 
                regard to whether or not the contribution is made by a 
                corporation.
                    ``(B) Limit on reduction.--In the case of a 
                charitable contribution of food which is a qualified 
                contribution (within the meaning of paragraph (3)(A), 
                as modified by subparagraph (A) of this paragraph)--
                            ``(i) paragraph (3)(B) shall not apply, and
                            ``(ii) the reduction under paragraph (1)(A) 
                        for such contribution shall be no greater than 
                        the amount (if any) by which the amount of such 
                        contribution exceeds twice the basis of such 
                        food.
                    ``(C) Determination of basis.--For purposes of this 
                paragraph, if a taxpayer uses the cash method of 
                accounting, the basis of any qualified contribution of 
                such taxpayer shall be deemed to be 50 percent of the 
                fair market value of such contribution.
                    ``(D) Determination of fair market value.--In the 
                case of a charitable contribution of food which is a 
                qualified contribution (within the meaning of paragraph 
                (3), as modified by subparagraphs (A) and (B) of this 
                paragraph) and which, solely by reason of internal 
                standards of the taxpayer, lack of market, or similar 
                circumstances, or which is produced by the taxpayer 
                exclusively for the purposes of transferring the food 
                to an organization described in paragraph (3)(A), 
                cannot or will not be sold, the fair market value of 
                such contribution shall be determined--
                            ``(i) without regard to such internal 
                        standards, such lack of market, such 
                        circumstances, or such exclusive purpose, and
                            ``(ii) if applicable, by taking into 
                        account the price at which the same or similar 
                        food items are sold by the taxpayer at the time 
                        of the contribution (or, if not so sold at such 
                        time, in the recent past).''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2001.
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