Letter
Letter from Archbishop Kurtz and Bishop Dewane to U.S. House Representatives regarding the LIFT for Charities Act of 2019
Letter from Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz and Bishop Frank J. Dewane to U.S. House Representatives Mark Walker and Thomas Suozzi regarding the LIFT for Charities Act of 2019, March 8, 2019
As the respective chairmen of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development and Committee for Religious Liberty, we write in strong support of your bipartisan bill, H.R. 1545, the Lessening Impediments From Taxes (LIFT) for Charities Act of 2019.
This legislation repeals Internal Revenue Code Section 512(a)(7), more commonly known as the “parking lot tax,” which treats as an increase to an organization’s unrelated business taxable income (“UBTI”) “any amount for which a deduction is not allowable under [Chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code] by reason of section 274 and which is paid or incurred by such organization for any qualified transportation fringe (as defined in section 132(f)), any parking facility used in connection with qualified parking (as defined in section 132(f)(5)(C)), or any on-premises athletic facility (as defined in section 132(j)(4)(B)).” Section 274 was amended by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to provide that “No deduction shall be allowed under this chapter for the expense of any qualified transportation fringe (as defined in section 132(f)) provided to an employee of the taxpayer.”