Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Tax Reform Act of 1969
The Tax Reform Act of 1969 provided the legal framework for much of what gift planners do today. To reform abuses of loosely regulated charitable trusts and private foundations, the Act mandated many changes affecting the practice of charitable gift planning.
While familiar tools such as charitable remainder trusts and lead trusts, pooled income funds, and gift annuities were in use long before 1969, this legislation spelled out very specific and wide-ranging new rules for their operation.
As a result of the Tax Reform Act, many people became attracted to the field of charitable gift planning. Gift planning councils sprang up across the country. Another major tax reform in 1986 closed many popular loopholes, making charitable remainder trusts even more attractive, and intensifying the need for a national professional association. The National Committee on Planned Giving (now NACGP) was founded as a federation of gift planning councils in 1988. Gift planners continue to find creative gift arrangements within the legal framework set out in 1969.
This is an anniversary worth celebrating!
Why was the Act needed? What did it contain? What was its impact on charitable gift planning? Read Ronald Brown’s article about the Tax Reform Act of 1969 here.
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Visit Ronald Brown's webiste www.giftplanninghistory.org.
