Congressmen Schilling & Schock Rally Around Bill That Helps Charities and Small Businesses

From left, Congressman Schock, Gary C. Smith, President
& CEO of NAEIR & Congressman Schilling

Galesburg, Illinois – Thursday, January 26, 2012 – A day after having observed the 35^th anniversary of the organization’s founding, NAEIR hosted a joint press conference held before an audience of the nonprofit group’s employees. Congressmen Aaron Schock [R-IL18] and Bobby Schilling [R-IL17] each made statements regarding the significance of H.R. 2592: the Charitable Contribution Parity & Enhancement Act.  The bill would extend a federal tax deduction to small businesses making inventory donations to nonprofits, schools and churches. 

As the bill’s sponsor, Congressman Schock stressed that the bill corrects a longstanding disparity between S Corporations and other small businesses that represent a significant majority of all companies and larger Regular C Corporations.  Currently the up to twice-cost tax benefit on inventory donations is available to C Corporations but not to smaller businesses.  H.R. 2592 would change that. Congressman Schilling, a co-sponsor, emphasized the nationwide impact that the bill would have and it’s bi-partisan support.  Congressman Danny Davis [D-IL7] is another co-sponsor of the bill.

Gary C. Smith, President & CEO of the organization, underscored the benefits that would be realized by both the small business community as well as charities across the U.S. He added that the impact of this legislation needs to be understood on the grassroots level; promoting greater collaboration between businesses and charities at the local level.

Mr. Smith and the Congressmen agree that the passage of H.R. 2592 would provide tax relief to hundreds of thousands of struggling small businesses. Equally substantial numbers of charities and those they serve numbering in the millions would benefit through previously unavailable access to a wide variety of free products. 

The Congressmen were in agreement that this legislation represents a two-pronged economic boost to the nation’s small businesses and millions of Americans nationwide, currently struggling under challenging economic times.

 
Help us to get the word out on the bill!  Contact your Representatives on Capitol Hill.  Go to www.popvox.com.  Registration is quick and easy.  Type in HR 2592 in the box on the upper right hand corner.  On the next webpage, please click "Support" and ask everyone you know to do the same.


If you're a business and would like to donate to NAEIR, or if you're a nonprofit, school or church and would like to learn more about the benefits of joining, please give us a call at (800)-562-0955.

Lunch With Representative Don Moffitt on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Gary C. Smith, NAEIR’s President and I sat down with Representative Don Moffitt yesterday over lunch at Chez Willy’s on Historic Seminary Street here in Galesburg, IL.  Of course, yesterday marked an important national holiday - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. 

While municipal, state and federal government agencies and many of our country’s businesses were closed, the Representative had spent the earlier part of an unusually warm and welcome early January day at various important events.  These were held in order to memorialize the formidable contributions of this great man to the civil rights movement in the United States and to celebrate the resulting civil liberties that millions of Americans now hold dear.

As a fulltime legislator in the role of State Representative for the 74^th District in the Illinois General Assembly that’s served in this capacity since 1993, Don’s had years of experience in this capacity.  He also has a number of important committee assignments.  These include the Committee of the Whole, Agriculture & Conservation, Appropriations – Public Safety, Elementary & Secondary Education, Local Government and Veterans Affairs. 

State Representative Don Moffitt,
74th District, IL General Assembly 

Taken as a whole, NAEIR’s approximately 13,000 members include a wide range of nonprofit organizations and schools throughout the country. Within the State of Illinois, NAEIR has more members than in any other single State of the Union; exceeding 1,400 across both of our current membership programs. 

While Representative Moffitt of course, has a keen interest in the welfare and prosperity of our nation as a whole and the State of Illinois specifically, his primary responsibility as an elected official is to his constituents in Illinois’ 74^th District which includes Knox, Stark and parts of Bureau and Henry counties.

Over lunch, we talked about some of the challenges that NAEIR as an organization is facing as a result of the difficult economic climate that's effected virtually everyone in the country, including our nonprofit and school members.  We also brought the Representative up to speed on our efforts regarding HR 2592: the Charitable Contribution Parity & Enhancement Act. Gary talked about the benefits that many more charitable organizations would realize in the form of free products and that greater numbers of small businesses could anticipate in the form of an enhanced federal tax deduction.

We also discussed the idea of working with more school districts in the state and that discussions with public sector leaders in education on the Illinois State level might ultimately result in a productive partnership to that end.  Considering the budget cuts that the State has been experiencing, NAEIR could be a Godsend to most of the State’s school districts in particular.  We currently work with only a fraction of the total 1,068 school districts in Illinois.

We've got a few things to follow up on and agreed, before going our separate ways, that it’s probably a good idea to get together from time to time in order to continue to explore mutual areas of interest.

If you're a business and would like to donate to NAEIR, or if you're a nonprofit, school or church and would like to learn more about the benefits of joining, please give us a call at (800)-562-0955.

A Quick and Simple Way to Grow Support for H.R. 2592: the Charitable Contribution Parity & Enhancement Act

In this blog and elsewhere we’ve been discussing NAEIR's introduction of H.R. 2592 and attempts to cultivate interest and support of the bill since 2008. 

Once passed, this legislation would allow thousands of S Corps and other businesses throughout the country to take advantage of IRC Section 170(e)(3).  They would get the same enhanced tax deduction when donating surplus inventory that only C Corporations now enjoy.

The bill would motivate many more companies to donate inventory and make a wide range of free products available to charities throughout the country.

NAEIR's corporate offices and warehouse, Galesburg, IL

We’ve sought to grow support for the bill among legislators and others throughout the country for a while now.  There have been meetings and telephone conversations with legislators and their staff.  In addition, we’ve also spoken with major nonprofit groups and association executives in education and the philanthropic and business community on the local and national level. Periodic trips to Washington, D.C. in large part to grow this support as well as to generate interest in NAEIR in general have also been conducted.

As I’ve said previously and should come as no surprise to anyone that spends any time watching network or cable news, reading online news sources and poring over newspapers, the focus on the domestic front, at all levels of government is job creation and the national debt.  Scarce little attention is being paid to anything else. 

No matter.  With your help and your support of H.R. 2592, we can continue to build on the growing interest in the bill and its ultimate adoption. 

Here’s an easy way to let your legislators know that you support the bill; that may inspire them to do likewise.  Go to www.popvox.com.  First, you’ll need to register.  This will take no time at all and allows Popvox to automatically determine who your representatives are.  Type H.R. 2592 in the search panel on the upper right hand corner.  A webpage will appear.  You can register support with a click of your mouse.  An email will be sent directly to your representatives on Capitol Hill. Please ask your friends and colleagues to do the same.

This is important legislation.  One of the great things about this bill is that it helps both the philanthropic and business communities across the country. 

Thanks for your help.

Questions?  Give me a call or send me an email.  I’ll get back to you ASAP.  Here’s how to reach me:

Cruz A. Ramos

VP of Public Affairs

NAEIR

(309)-343-0704 ext. 341

(800)-562-0955 ext. 341

car@naeir.org

NAEIR Meeting with Doug Whitley, President and CEO - Illinois Chamber of Commerce

Gary C. Smith, President and CEO, NAEIR and I met recently with Doug Whitley, President and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.  On its website, The Illinois Chamber describes itself as “…the leading voice for employers of all sizes, from sole proprietors, to entrepreneurs reshaping the Illinois business landscape, to international corporations, we serve as your voice in the state capitol.”

Doug Whitley, President & CEO
Illinois Chamber of Commerce

The Illinois Chamber of Commerce has over 3500 members in the State and works with individual local Chambers within the state as well.  It represents the interests of the Illinois business community on the federal level as well as the State level and is active in representing its members both statewide and nationally. 

We were introduced to Doug through our association with Bob Maus, the President of the Galesburg Area Regional Chamber of Commerce.  The occasion for the meeting was to talk to Doug about HR 2592.  If passed, the bill would allow the majority of American businesses – S Corporations and other pass through entities - the same up to twice-cost tax deduction benefit that Regular C Corporations have benefited from since 1986. 

Passage of the bill would benefit Illinois greatly in that it would provide tax advantages to Illinois businesses, the majority of which don’t currently benefit as most are not C Corporations. The meeting provided us with an opportunity to get to know Doug and better understand his organization, while establishing a foundation that we hope will ultimately result in closer collaboration and perhaps opportunities to meet Illinois business people affiliated with the Illinois Chamber. 

As intriguing as the bill appeared to Doug, this is not currently something they would formally get behind given a full legislative agenda at this time.  Doug did share his thoughts with us on how we might be able to get some traction on the bill that Gary and I discussed afterwards.  We also discussed some other areas of mutual interest and possible ongoing discussion.


All in all, we came away from our meeting having learned something about the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and some of the challenges facing the State’s business community.   Gary and I believe we were able to speak to areas of mutual concern; perhaps areas where we might be able to collaborate with Doug and the State Chamber in the future.

For information on how your company can benefit when donating excess, slow-moving inventory, please call us at (800)-562-0955 or go to www.naeir.org.  If you’re a nonprofit organization, school or church that’s interested in getting free materials, you can also call us at this number or find out more about us through our website as well.