Treacherous Waters

A recent Internal Revenue Service Chief Counsel Memorandum concluded that a trust could not claim a charitable income tax deduction after it had received taxable IRA distributions (that is, income in respect of a decedent or IRD)¹ and then distributed the amounts to charities. The ability of an estate or trust to claim a charitable income tax deduction may be further complicated by a new proposed Treasury regulation holding that whenever a governing instrument specifies a source of