[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 673 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 673

   To allow certain newspapers to be treated as described in section 
  501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and exempt from tax 
                   under section 501(a) of such Code.


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 24, 2009

  Mr. Cardin (for himself and Ms. Mikulski) introduced the following 
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To allow certain newspapers to be treated as described in section 
  501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and exempt from tax 
                   under section 501(a) of such Code.

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

SECTION 1. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN NEWSPAPERS AS EXEMPT FROM TAX UNDER 
              SECTION 501.

    (a) In General.--Paragraph (3) of section 501(c) of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by inserting ``(including a qualified 
newspaper corporation)'' after ``educational purposes''.
    (b) Qualified Newspaper Corporation.--Section 501 of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 is amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsection (r) as subsection (s), and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (q) the following new 
        subsection:
    ``(r) Qualified Newspaper Corporation.--For purposes of this title, 
a corporation or organization shall be treated as a qualified newspaper 
corporation if--
            ``(1) the trade or business of such corporation or 
        organization consists of publishing on a regular basis a 
        newspaper for general circulation,
            ``(2) the newspaper published by such corporation or 
        organization contains local, national, and international news 
        stories of interest to the general public and the distribution 
        of such newspaper is necessary or valuable in achieving an 
        educational purpose, and
            ``(3) the preparation of the material contained in such 
        newspaper follows methods generally accepted as educational in 
        character.''.
    (c) Unrelated Business Income of a Qualified Newspaper 
Corporation.--Section 513 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is 
amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(k) Advertising Income of Qualified Newspaper Corporations.--The 
term `unrelated trade or business' does not include the sale by a 
qualified newspaper corporation (as defined in section 501(r)) of any 
space for commercial advertisement to be published in a newspaper, to 
the extent that the space allotted to all such advertisements in such 
newspaper does not exceed the space allotted to fulfilling the 
educational purpose of such qualified newspaper corporation.''.
    (d) Deduction for Charitable Contributions.--Subparagraph (B) of 
section 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by 
inserting ``(including a qualified newspaper corporation as defined in 
section 501(r))'' after ``educational purposes''.
    (e) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to taxable years beginning after the date of the enactment of 
this Act.
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