HR 2330119th CongressIn Committee

Virginia Beach Heroes Act

Introduced: Mar 25, 2025

Standard Summary

Comprehensive overview in 1-2 paragraphs

The Virginia Beach Heroes Act (H.R. 2330) is a short federal bill introduced in the 119th Congress. Its purpose is to speed up and simplify the tax treatment of charitable cash contributions intended to aid the families of two Virginia Beach law enforcement officers who were killed on February 22, 2025. The bill does two main things: (1) it clarifies that charitable cash gifts to the families qualify as deductible charitable contributions under the Internal Revenue Code, even though the benefits are exclusive to those families; and (2) it provides special, time-limited rules for payments made by charitable organizations directly to the spouses or dependents of the officers (between Feb. 22, 2025 and Feb. 23, 2028) so that those payments are treated as legitimate charitable expenditures that further the organization’s exempt purposes and do not constitute improper private benefit, provided payments are made in good faith using a fair, consistent formula. In short, the bill aims to promote charitable giving to relief efforts by ensuring donors can deduct contributions and by safeguarding the tax-exempt status of organizations distributing funds to the families, within a defined three-year window.

Key Points

1Clarifies that cash contributions for relief of the slain officers’ families qualify as charitable deductions under Section 170, even though the benefit is exclusively for the families.
2Establishes that charitable organizations’ payments to the spouses or dependents of the officers (made 2/22/2025 through 2/23/2028) will be treated as related to the organization’s exempt purpose and not as private inurement, if paid in good faith using a reasonable, objective, and consistently applied formula.
3Applies to contributions made on or after February 22, 2025, and to payments within the 2025–2028 window.
4Uses existing tax-law concepts (Section 170 deduction, Section 501(a) tax-exempt status, and Section 152 dependents) to frame the new rules.
5Requires that the payments be made in a manner that is fair, consistent, and reasonably calculated, to avoid private benefit concerns.

Impact Areas

Primary group/area affected- Families of the two law enforcement officers killed in Virginia Beach, including spouses and dependents who receive charitable payments.- Donors who contribute cash to relief funds for these families, who may benefit from clarified and potentially accelerated tax benefits.Secondary group/area affected- Charitable organizations and other tax-exempt entities that raise and distribute funds to these families, as well as their governance and compliance practices.Additional impacts- The Internal Revenue Code’s administration and interpretation in relation to narrowly targeted charitable relief, with a defined three-year window for these provisions.- Potential influence on how similar family-relief contributions could be treated in future similar incidents (setting a precedent for related-party charitable relief within the tax code).

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