The recently signed $700 billion economic bailout bill (H.R. 1424, The Financial Rescue Package), includes a two-year extension of the IRA Rollover provision.

The provision will be made retroactive to January 1, 2008, and will apply to gifts made from that date through December 31, 2009.

The special legislation allows you to make charitable gifts directly ("rolled over") from a traditional or Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA) without incurring federal income taxes. The following limitations apply:

    - The donor must be age 70 1/2 or older.

    - The cap on annual IRA rollovers is $100,000. 

    - The contribution must be a direct gift to a charity (no planned gifts.)

The exclusion from income applies only to a distribution that is otherwise includible in income. The account the owner is not allowed a deduction for the contribution.

The IRA Rollover was originally included in the Pension Protection Act of 2006.