HR7087-119

What This Bill Does

The Grave Injustice Parity Act amends Internal Revenue Code sections 2055 and 2522 so that transfers from estates or gifts to certain nonprofit cemetery organizations can qualify for charitable deductions. The eligible organizations are cemetery companies owned and operated exclusively for the benefit of their members and cemetery corporations chartered solely for burial purposes, if they are nonprofit, conduct only business necessarily incident to burial purposes, and do not let net earnings benefit a private shareholder or individual. The bill applies the change to estate and gift transfers made after enactment.

Who Benefits and How

Nonprofit cemetery companies, nonprofit cemetery corporations, estate donors, gift donors, families maintaining burial grounds, and community cemetery associations benefit because qualifying transfers can be deducted for estate-tax or gift-tax purposes. Estate planners and tax attorneys benefit from a clearer statutory category for cemetery gifts that resemble other charitable or public-purpose transfers.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Federal revenue collections may decrease because more estate and gift transfers become deductible. IRS estate-tax examiners, gift-tax examiners, estate administrators, and donor advisers must verify nonprofit status, member-benefit operation, burial-purpose charter limits, and the absence of private inurement before allowing the deduction.

Key Provisions

• Amends estate-tax charitable deduction rules to include qualifying nonprofit cemetery companies and cemetery corporations.
• Amends gift-tax charitable deduction rules for direct and split-interest transfers to those cemetery organizations.
• Requires eligible cemetery organizations to operate without profit and without private inurement.
• Applies the deduction change to transfers made after enactment.