A key Senator is making a push in Congress for legislation that would increase the tax deduction for people who use their automobiles as part of their volunteer work.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has announced that he supports a bill introduced in July that would help volunteers with the mileage rate. The measure is one of a dozen that are now pending that would change the rate in some way.

Under current federal law, volunteers who drive their cars for charitable purposes may deduct 14 cents a mile for their car costs (or be reimbursed by a charity at that rate without the payment’s being subject to federal income tax).

A growing number of members of Congress have said the rate is too low, especially as gas prices have climbed in recent months.

The bill that Mr. Grassley has endorsed — the Fair Deal for Volunteers Act — would a...

To take advantage of today’s announcement that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has joined Sen. John McCain’s bid for the White House, an advocacy group is pushing the presumed Republican vice presidential nominee to commit to helping poor people worldwide.

Only hours after the announcement, the ONE Campaign sent an e-mail message to supporters asking that they send a “digital postcard” to Ms. Palin, which says: “Congratulations on being picked to be #2 on the ticket. We hope you’ll be in the fight to end global poverty.”

On the organization’s blog, Virginia Simmons, ONE’s online communications director, points out that the next few days are crucial in making an impression on the Alaska governor.

“Soon Palin will be engulfed in campaigning and national media, so now is our moment to break through the clutter,” she writes.

The ONE Campaign started a similar effort when Sen. Joe...

Donors who want to provide aid in areas of the world threatened by terrorism should consider forming partnerships with the U.S. government to distribute their money, Patrick O’Brien, assistant secretary for terrorist financing with the U.S. Treasury Department, told a meeting of charity leaders on Friday.

Speaking at a day-long conference for Arab and Muslim-American charity executives, Mr. O’Brien cited as a model a partnership announced on August 1 between American Charities for Palestine and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

American Charities for Palestine, a nonprofit organization in Washington, will raise money from American donors who want to assist people in the Palestinian territories. USAID will then help the charity direct its contributions to projects in the region.

“Essentially, this type of partnership allows individual U.S. donors to tap into the...

The Internal Revenue Service has published proposed rules aimed at making sure donors keep proper records to substantiate gifts of cash and property they make to charities.

The proposal explain how the tax agency plans to enforce laws enacted in recent years that included provisions designed to cut down on abuses by donors and charities.

For example, the Pension Protection Act of 2006 said no tax deduction could be taken for gifts to charities of furniture, household goods, and clothing that are not in “good used condition or better.”

In its proposed rules, the IRS said that it and the Treasury Department are “aware that a number of charities publish donation guidelines listing items the charity will and will not accept, and believe that the guidelines are helpful in ensuring that charities receive donations of items that are of meaningful use to the charity.”

The revenue...

The Internal Revenue Service has told an organization that says it operates “for the advancement of Christianity and for other charitable purposes” that it does not qualify for a federal tax exemption as a church under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code.

In its application for tax-exempt status, the organization said it conducts some “street ministry” activities, expects to rent a building and buy equipment to hold indoor services, and might one day start a religious school to educate young people.

The group said its board of directors has four members: its pastor, who is the founder and board chairman; his wife, who is the co-chair, secretary, and treasurer; a son, who is assistant secretary; and another son.

In its ruling, the IRS noted that no definition of “church” appears in the Internal Revenue Code.

However, the tax agency and federal courts have identified several...

A group of U.S. senators and House members from the Midwest have introduced a bill that would create tax incentives for charitable giving to help victims of the recent storms, tornadoes, and floods that have hit their region.

The Midwestern Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2008 would allow individuals and corporations to get unlimited charitable deductions for donations to relief efforts in the affected areas through the end of 2008.

The bill would also allow people who use their vehicles for disaster relief to deduct 41 cents per mile — or about 70 percent of the current business mileage rate through the end of 2009. The rates now are 14 cents per mile for charitable activities and 58.5 cents for business activities.

Volunteers could also exclude from their income reimbursements from charities for use of their vehicles up to the amount of the standard business rate through the end of...

More than 1.1 million charities and private foundations were registered with the Internal Revenue Service as of September 30, 2007, according to figures released by the tax agency.

The IRS reported that the number of groups classified under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code rose from 2006 to 2007 by 64,176, or 6 percent — the highest percentage increase in four years.

In 2007, a total of 1,128,367 charities and foundations were registered with the federal government, compared with 1,064,191 in 2006.

The number of groups classified under Section 501(c)(3) has increased by 73 percent over the past dozen years. In 1996, the revenue service counted a total of 654,186 of them.

Until last year, the pace of growth of all charitable organizations had been gradually slowing down. The number of groups increased by 1.7 percent from 2005 to 2006; 3.5 percent from 2004 to 2005; ...

Next week comes the first annual deadline for the smallest nonprofit groups to comply with a new federal requirement to file annual information with the Internal Revenue Service, and a group of accountants in Connecticut want to make sure organizations are ready.

New tax law requires nonprofits groups with $25,000 or less in annual revenue to file the new Form 990-N informational tax return by the 15th day of the fifth month after the end of a fiscal year. For those operating on a calendar year, for example, the deadline would be May 15.

Previously, small groups were exempt from filing any returns with the IRS. To inform them of the new requirement, the IRS sent out 650,000 letters last year, and posted an online question-and-answer page meant to help organizations comply.

But Adam P. Cohen, a West Hartford accountant, thinks more ought to be done to get the word out about the...

A key senator wants to give the Federal Trade Commission the power to regulate nonprofit organizations including penalizing charities that say in their fund-raising appeals they are raising money for a particular cause but devote very little of it to that purpose.

The effort by Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, is the first stab at putting the brakes on nonprofit organizations that spend a very low percentage of the money they raise on their charitable missions.

Recent House hearings found that several groups that help veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts spend most of their donations on fund-raising expenses or salaries rather than veterans and their families.

A provision on the regulation of nonprofit groups was included in legislation to extend the Federal Trade Commission bill, S....

Vermont is poised to become the first state to officially recognize a new kind of business designed to allow charitable ventures to more easily attract foundation money and other kinds of private capital. Advocates of the new business structure – what they describe as “a for-profit with a nonprofit soul” — say it has the potential to attract billions, if not trillions, of new dollars to organizations doing good works around the country.

The new business entity is to be called a low-profit limited liability company, or L3C, and Vermont’s governor is expected to sign into law at the end of the month the bill creating the designation.

An L3C, a variation of a limited-liability company, would operate like a for-profit business generating at least modest profits, but its primary aim would be to offer significant social benefits, such providing jobs in an economically depressed area. Such...