Tax Issues Affecting Disaster Relief
Megan Bell, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP David Shevlin, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
Carolyn (Morey) Ward, Ropes & Gray LLP I. Pre-9/11 Regulatory Environment for Disaster Relief.
At the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks, the future of employer-sponsored charitable assistance programs seemed bleak. The IRS had favorably addressed disaster-relief programs established by employer-sponsored private foundations in two private letter rulings issued in 1995. In 1999, however, the IRS reversed its position and revoked these two rulings.1 The IRS stated that it considered the disaster-relief programs similar to other types of employee-benefit programs that serve the private interests of the employer and its employees, rather than the interests of the broader public. Then 9/11 occurred.
II. Victims of Terrorism Tax Relief Act. A. Introduction.
In response to the 9/11 attacks, Congress enacted the Victims of Terrorism Tax Relief Act of 20012 (the "Victims Relief Act"), which, among other things, changed the landscape for employer-sponsored assistance programs. Specifically, the Victims Relief Act amended the Code by inserting a new Section 139, which defines "qualified disasters" and provides that "disaster relief payments" for victims of qualified disasters are excluded from the victims' gross income. In addition, the Victims Relief Act directed the IRS to broaden the
1
LTR 199914040 (April 12, 1999); LTR 199917077 (May 3, 1999).
2
Victims of Terrorism Tax Relief Act of 2001, Pub. L. No. 107-134, 115 Stat. 2427 (2001).
allowed activities of private foundations with regard to disaster relief for both the general public and employee beneficiaries of employer-sponsored foundations.3
B. Qualified Disaster Relief Payments.
Section 111 of the Victims Relief Act amended the Code by adding a new Section 139, which governs the tax treatment of payments made to victims of certain "qualified
disasters."4 Specifically, Section 139(a) excludes from gross income any amount received by an individual as a "qualified disaster relief payment."5 A "qualified disaster relief payment" 6
3
As set forth in more detail below, this direction was not included in the Victims Relief Act, nor was it added to the Code. Instead, this direction was found in the Technical Explanation accompanying the Victims Relief Act and was further explained in the Disaster Relief Publication.
4
Section 139(c) defines "qualified disaster" as:
(1) a disaster that results from a terroristic or military action (as defined in Section 692(c)(2));
(2) a Presidentially declared disaster as defined in Section 1033(h)(3) (generally, a disaster in an area that has been subsequently determined by the President to warrant federal assistance under the Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act);
(3) a disaster resulting from any event that the Secretary determines to be of a catastrophic nature; or
(4) with respect to amounts described in Section 139(b)(4), a disaster that is determined by an applicable Federal, State, or local authority (as
determined by the Secretary) to warrant assistance from the Federal, State, or local government or an agency or instrumentality thereof.
Section 139(c). A Presidentially declared disaster is a disaster that occurred in an area determined by the President of the United States to be eligible for Federal assistance. Section 1033(h)(3) defines the term “Presidentially declared disaster” in reference to the Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, which uses as its operative concept the term “major disaster.” A “major disaster” is defined, in part, as “any natural catastrophe … or, regardless of cause, any fire, flood, or explosion, in any part of the United States.” (Emphasis added.)
5
Section 139(a) provides that gross income shall not include any amount received by an individual as a qualified disaster relief payment.
includes payments of certain expenses incurred as a result of a "qualified disaster." These qualifying payments may be from any source (including, as set forth below, an employer) to reimburse or pay reasonable and necessary expenses for the individual's repair or rehabilitation of a personal residence and its contents (to the extent attributable to the qualified disaster), and other personal, family, living or funeral expenses.
The Technical Explanation of Section 139 indicates that a qualified disaster relief payment may be from any source, including an employer.7 The Technical Explanation goes on to note the uncertainty in the IRS's position regarding the treatment of disaster-relief payments made by employer-controlled private foundations to employees, and states that "clarification [by the IRS] of the appropriate treatment of the foundation and the payments may be helpful."8 The legislative history sets forth the following guidelines for such "clarification":
6
Section 139(b) provides that a qualified disaster relief payment includes any amount paid to or for the benefit of an individual —
(1) to reimburse or pay reasonable and necessary personal, family, living, or funeral expenses (not otherwise compensated for by insurance or otherwise) incurred as a result of a qualified disaster, or
(2) to reimburse or pay reasonable and necessary expenses (not otherwise compensated for by insurance or otherwise) incurred for the repair or rehabilitation of a personal residence or repair or replacement of its contents to the extent that the need for such repair, rehabilitation, or replacement is attributable to a qualified disaster.
7
STAFF OF JOINT COMM. OF TAXATION,107THCONG.,TECHNICAL EXPLANATION OF THE
“VICTIMS OF TERRORISM TAX RELIEF ACT OF 2001,” AS PASSED BY THE HOUSE AND THE
SENATE ON DECEMBER 20,2001,JCX-93-01(THE “TECHNICAL EXPLANATION”),15
(2001).
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1. An employer-controlled private foundation that makes payments in
connection with a qualified disaster to employees (and their family members) will be entitled to the presumption that it is acting consistently with the requirements of Section 501(c)(3) and is not providing an inappropriate private benefit if:
a) the class of beneficiaries is large or indefinite, and
b) recipients are selected based on an objective determination of need by an independent committee of the foundation, a majority of the members of which are not persons who are in a position to exercise substantial influence over the affairs of the employer (determined under principles similar to those in effect under Section 4958), or based on "adequate substitute procedures."9
2. Need-based payments from an employer-controlled private foundation to individuals for exclusively charitable purposes, including the relief of distress caused by a qualified disaster, are excludable from the recipients' income as gifts, regardless of whether the payments fall within the scope of Section 139, and regardless of Section 102(c), which provides that a transfer from an employer to an employee generally is not excludable from income as a gift.
3. Disaster-relief payments made by a private foundation that support a large or indefinite class of beneficiaries and are granted based on an objective
determination of need (and that therefore qualify for the presumption that the foundation is acting consistently with the requirements of Section 501(c)(3)): a) will not be treated as an act of self-dealing under Section 4941 merely because the recipient is an employee (or family member of an employee) of a disqualified person with respect to the foundation; b) will be treated as in furtherance of the foundation's charitable purposes; and
c) will be considered to meet the requirements of Section 4945(g) (regarding grants to individuals by private foundations), to the extent that they apply.
4. Contributions to a Section 501(c)(3) organization administering relief in the manner outlined above (including contributions made by employers and employees) are deductible for federal income-tax purposes under the generally applicable rules of Section 170.10
9
The Technical Explanation does not explain what "adequate substitute procedures" might be, except to note that such procedures would "ensure that any benefit to the employer is incidental and tenuous." Section 4958 imposes penalty excise taxes in
10
C. Special Treatment for Anthrax.
While Section 501(c)(3) organizations generally must make a formal
determination of the needs of grantees prior to distributing funds to them, this rule was set aside in response to the delays, which were widely reported in the news media, in distributing the funds raised by charities in response to the September 11th attacks. Initially, the IRS issued Notice 2001-78, which provided that the IRS would treat payments “made by reason of the death, injury or wounding of an individual incurred as a result of the September 11, 2001
terrorist attacks” as “related to the charity’s exempt purpose provided that the payments are made in good faith using objective standards.”
The IRS’ relaxation of the needs-based approach was endorsed and expanded by section 104 of the Victims Relief Act. Payments by qualified charitable organizations occurring by reason of death or injury connected with the September 11th terrorist attacks or anthrax-related attacks between September 11, 2001 and January 1, 2002 are deemed consistent with the organization's exempt status, provided the payments are made in good faith and using a
reasonable, objective and consistently applied formula. Furthermore, section 104 of the Victims Relief Act overruled the IRS’s position by providing that private foundations that made
distributions to victims of the September 11 and anthrax attacks would not be treated as having made a payment to a disqualified person for purposes of Section 4941 self-dealing penalties.
D. Revenue Ruling 2003-12.
In 2003, the IRS issued Revenue Ruling 2003-12.11 This ruling further confirmed that Section 139 allows employees to exclude from gross income qualifying payments received from their employers. Specifically, the IRS ruled that grants received by employees through an
11
employer's program to pay or reimburse certain reasonable and necessary medical, temporary housing, or transportation expenses they incur as a result of a flood includible could be excluded from such employees' gross income pursuant to Section 139.
In this ruling, the IRS evaluated a disaster relief program created by an employer to assist employees affected by a flood. This grant program: (1) did not require individuals to provide proof of actual expenses to receive the grant payment; and (2) contained requirements designed to ensure that the grant amounts were reasonably expected to be commensurate with the amount of unreimbursed reasonable and necessary expenses that employees incur as a result of the flood. In addition, the grants were available to all affected employees regardless of length or type of service and the payments were not intended to indemnify all flood-related losses or to reimburse the cost of nonessential, luxury or decorative items and services. The IRS ruled that the employer's grants were qualified disaster relief payments that could be excluded from the gross income of its employees, and, therefore, the grants were not subject to federal income, Social Security, Medicare, or FUTA tax, reporting under Section 6041 or any other information reporting requirements.12
As a result of both Revenue Ruling 2003-12 and the Victims Relief Act, taxpayers living in a Presidentially declared disaster area—e.g., those areas listed in President Bush's recent hurricane disaster declarations13—do not have to include in their income any grants made by their employers to cover medical, transportation, or temporary housing expenses.
12
Id. at 283. 13
A list of the Presidentially Declared Disasters can be found at http://www.fema.gov or
E. IRS Publication on Disaster Relief.
Following the enactment of the Victims Relief Act, the IRS released a revised version of Publication 3833, entitled “Disaster Relief: Providing Assistance through Charitable Organizations” (the “Disaster Relief Publication”).14 The Disaster Relief Publication describes the IRS’s current position with respect to disaster-relief payments by employer-controlled charities. The IRS addresses sponsored private foundations” and “employer-sponsored public charities” in separate sections of the Disaster Relief Publication.15.
Specifically, the IRS has set forth three requirements that must be met for an employer-controlled private foundation to benefit from the presumption that disaster-relief payments to employees (or their family members) in response to a qualified disaster are consistent with the foundation's charitable purposes:16
1. the class of beneficiaries must be large or indefinite;
2. the recipients must be selected based on an objective determination of need; and
3. the selection must be made using either an independent selection committee or adequate substitute procedures to ensure that any benefit to the employer is incidental and tenuous. The selection committee is considered to be independent if a majority of the committee members are persons who are not in a position to exercise substantial influence over the affairs of the employer.
If these criteria are met, payments by the foundation will be considered to be made for a charitable purpose, will not be an act of self-dealing, and employees may exclude the 14 IRS Pub. 3833 (2002). 15 See id. at 15-19. 16
Although the IRS has not formally revoked its 1999 rulings, statements in the Disaster Relief Publication indicate that the IRS is not likely to follow its previous private ruling position and that, if the above-described guidelines are followed, an employer-controlled foundation may operate a program that provides disaster-relief payments to employees facing hardship after a qualified disaster.
payment from income. This favorable presumption, however, only applies to those payments made in response to a "qualified disaster." This means that only those employees living in a Presidentially-declared disaster area may exclude from their income any grants made by their employers to cover medical, transportation, or temporary housing expenses.
The presumption also does not apply to payments that would otherwise constitute self-dealing, such as payments to directors of the foundation or members of the foundation's selection committee. In addition, the Disaster Relief Publication notes that an employer-controlled foundation's program of disaster-relief payments may not be used to induce
employees to follow a particular course of action (such as to continue their employment) or to relieve the employer of a legal obligation to provide employee benefits (such as an obligation under a collective bargaining agreement).
In addition, the IRS has made clear that a private foundation must also maintain adequate records demonstrating: (1) the victims' need for assistance; and (2) that the private foundation made qualified disaster relief payments to further the foundation's charitable purposes. The IRS has stated that the documentation should include a description of the following:
the nature of the assistance;
the purpose for which aid was given;
the charity's objective criteria for disbursing assistance under each program; the process by which recipients were selected;
the name, address and amount distributed to each recipient; and
the relationship between recipient and officers, directors, or key employees of or substantial contributors to the charitable organization
III. Guidelines For The Establishment Of A Disaster-Relief Assistance Program Funded By A Company foundation That Benefits Company Employees.
The following guidelines may be used by a company foundation that would like to establish a disaster-relief assistance program for the benefit of the company’s employees:
A. The foundation’s certificate of incorporation should broadly define the purpose of the foundation, stating that the foundation will provide assistance to the company's employees and others who are victims of any civil or natural disasters, present and future, and that the foundation is able to accept contributions from interested individuals,
corporations and other organizations, including employees of the company. B. A disaster-relief distribution committee of at least three members should be established by the foundation. This committee will review the requests for assistance, select recipients on an objective basis, and disburse funds. No more than one member of the committee should be an executive officer or key employee of the company.
C. The foundation should create an application for relief, which must be (i)
completed by each individual seeking assistance from the foundation, and (ii) submitted to the committee for consideration.
D. The committee should select recipients by the affirmative vote of at least a majority of the committee members after considering certain factors, including (a) the extent to which the applicant is needy or distressed at the time of the request, (b) the type of assistance sought (e.g., short-term vs. long-term) and (c) the amount requested. E. The committee should document all decisions taken by the committee and preserve a file containing documentation collected with respect to each successful applicant.
F. The foundation may distribute funds to the selected recipients or provide goods or services to the selected recipients.
IV. Special Issues for International Disaster Relief.
Charitable organizations wishing to support disaster relief efforts overseas generally will be subject to additional compliance and diligence requirements, particularly if the grantor is classified as a private foundation. In order to avoid this complexity, charitable
international relief work. However, charitable organizations may prefer to support foreign organizations and their disaster relief work.17
Charitable organizations making grants to foreign organizations to support disaster relief work must comply with anti-terrorism rules, trade sanctions, and embargoes,18 which may be implicated either by the jurisdiction of the intended foreign grant recipient, the jurisdiction of the disaster area, or the nature of the intended foreign grant recipient’s activities.19 These regimes may be applicable even when making grants to domestic organizations under “facilitation” clauses included in certain regulations.20
A. Special Issues for Private Foundations.
Private foundations wishing to support disaster relief efforts of foreign
organizations face additional compliance hurdles imposed by Chapter 42 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”) and the treasury regulations promulgated thereunder (the “Regulations”). Grants from private foundations to foreign organizations are treated as taxable
17
Charitable organizations may prefer to support foreign organizations for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to, a particular foreign organization’s operations and
involvement in the affected region or concerns about domestic organizations using a portion of the grant for administrative purposes.
18
This Outline does not address withholding and reporting issues associated with international disaster relief grantmaking.
19
See, e.g., Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended (15 U.S.C. §§ 78dd-1, et seq.),
Executive Order Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions with Persons Who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism (Exec. Order No. 13,224, 66 F.R. 49079 (2001)), the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control Sanctions Programs and Specially Designated Nationals List, and the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security’s Export Administration Regulations (also known as the “EAR” regulations) (15 C.F.R. §§ 730-774 (1998)).
20
See Burmese OFAC Regulations (31 C.F.R. Part 357), Iran Regulations (31 C.F.R. Parts 535, 560-562), and Sudan OFAC Regulations (31 C.F.R. Parts 538, 546).
expenditures under Code Section 4945. To avoid taxable expenditure treatment, a private foundation can: 1) make a good faith determination that a foreign organization is the equivalent of a public charity or a private operating foundation under Code Section 509(a)(1), (2), or (3), or Code Section 4942(j)(3), respectively;21 2) make a grant to a foreign government or its agencies or instrumentalities;22 3) make a grant to an international organization designated as such by executive order pursuant to 22 U.S.C.A. § 288;23 3) rely on reciprocal exemption provisions of treaties;24 or 4) exercise expenditure responsibility with respect to a grant.25
21
Rev. Proc. 92-94, 1992-2 C.B. 507. Another option is for the foreign organization to apply for recognition of its exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service under Code Section 509(a)(1), (2), or (3) 22 Regulations § 53.4945-5(a)(4)(iii). 23 Regulations § 53.4945-5(a)(4)(iii). 24
See Convention Between the Government of the United States of America and the
Government of the United Mexican States for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income, U.S.-Mex., art. 22, Sept. 18, 1992; see also Convention Between the United States of America and Canada with Respect to Taxes on Income and Capital, U.S.-Can., art. XXI, Sept. 26, 1980, and Notice 99-47, 1999-2 C.B. 391. Although a number of treaties provide that a tax-exempt
organization in one party state will be treated as tax exempt in the other party state, these provisions generally require satisfaction of the other party state’s requirements for exemption and are not therefore very practical in the context of disaster relief grantmaking.
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