This week, the U.S. Senate will be voting on H.R. 6049, The Energy and Tax Extenders Act of 2008.  Although the core of this bill pertains to energy tax extenders, it would also extend a number of charitable giving incentives that were originally passed as part of the 2006 Pension Protection Act for one year.

This includes the following (with their projected cost over ten years) 

• The Individual Retirement Account (IRA) charitable rollover allowing seniors 70 1/2 and older to make tax free contributions from their IRAs to charities ($465 million);
• The enhanced charitable deduction of food inventory ($71 million);
• The charitable deduction of book inventory ($31 million) and computers ($260 million);
• Modification of tax treatment of certain payments under existing arrangements to controlling exempt organizations ($35 million).

The major offsets include taxing deferred compensation paid to individuals by offshore companies (raising $24.3 billion over 10 years), and a nine-year delay in the implementation of the worldwide interest allocation benefit ($30 billion over 10 years).