KETRA increases the contribution limit for certain outright gifts of cash from 50 to 100 percent of adjusted gross income. The law does not apply to gifts of stock or other property. It was enacted to aid all qualified charities, not just organizations and institutions that are directly involved in hurricane relief efforts.
Explaining the reasons for enacting KETRA, Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said that "Our goal is to encourage charitable giving outside of Katrina relief, to prevent the rest of the nation's charities from seeing a downturn in giving as they did after Sept. 11."
It should be noted that KTRA was not designed to encourage donors to donate all of their earned income to charity. Many donors with significant assets have relatively low adjusted gross incomes (AGI), and can easily use a relatively small portion of their assets to eliminate their AGI and much of their tax bill this year.
For more information on KETRA, visit http://www.house.gov/jct/x-69-05.pdf
For more information on giving to National University, visit http://www.nu.edu/Community/Development.html
