Keep your eye over the coming weeks on a piece of legislation in Washington known as the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act. The Act was approved by the House of Representatives with overwhelming bipartisan support, 417-3, but the measure has been stuck in the Senate.
An important provision of the SECURE Act would increase the age at which a taxpayer must start taking required minimum distributions (RMD) from retirement accounts. The current law sets the age for mandatory RMDs at 70 ½; under the SECURE Act that age would increase to 72.
Many taxpayers who have reached age 70 ½ currently use a charitable gifting tool known as the Qualified Charitable Distribution. A taxpayer who makes a gift using this tool cannot deduct the gift, but also does not need to count the distribution as income. It has become increasingly popular, particularly since so few taxpayers can itemize charitable deductions under recent tax changes.
Congress has now returned from their summer recess, and they have to approve several spending bills by Sept. 30 to avoid a government shutdown. If they can't do that, they can pass a continuing resolution to keep government operating.
Advocates of the SECURE Act have indicated that they will try to include the provisions of the Act into an upcoming spending bill, or the continuing resolution.