Financial bail-out extends IRA rollover

The stabilization act just signed by the President extends through 2009 the provision whereby an owner of an IRA who is older than 70 1/2 can direct a distribution to a qualified non-profit of up to $100,000 without its being counted as taxable income. It does count toward the mandatory distribution. The donation must be made by the IRA directly and not pass through the hands of the donor first.

clipped from chronicle.com The U.S. Senate has attached a package of tax benefits to must-pass legislation to rescue the troubled financial sector, increasing the odds that the expired benefits could be renewed this year.The package newly added to the bailout bill, which the Senate is expected to take up later today, would extend for two years a tuition tax deduction, a research-and-development tax credit, and an IRA rollover for charitable contributions.