Tax Breaks Proposed For Living Organ Donors

[okarol]

Dec 21, 2006 5:41 pm US/Eastern

Tax Breaks Proposed For Living Organ Donors

(CBS4) BOSTON A state senator is promoting a new bill that would offer tax incentives to people who donate organs they can live without.

Sen. Karen Spilka, a Democrat from Ashland, is sponsoring the Gift of Life Act.

In an attempt to get more living organ donors, the bill offers a $10,000 state income tax deduction to those who would participate in the program.

It would also allow deductions for travel expenses and lost pay.

Spilka filed the bill at the State House Thursday afternoon.

She will be joined by officials from Harvard Medical School, the National Kidney Foundation, and Krystine Orr of Framingham, a woman who needs a kidney transplant.

Ten states already offer a tax incentive program for living donors.

Fran Collins donated one of his kidneys to his brother two years ago.

"If I didn't do that, my brother wouldn't be alive today," he said.

That's why Fran supports the new bill.

"We need to do as much as we can to make it easier to become a living organ donor," he said.

"If this becomes law, they will be many more families will be to come forward and have a donor," said Dr. Martin Hertl of Massachusetts General Hospital.

"I've been waiting for well over a year, it's very trying to have people talking about it, that could help us all," Orr said.

If you'd like to find out more about becoming an organ donor, call 781-278-0222 or log onto www.kidneyhealth.org or www.neob.org

URL: http://cbs4boston.com/local/local_story_355084909.html
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[Sluff]

Anytime you get a tax break the amount that you really benefit from is a lot smaller. Well this is a move in the right direction.

[Black]

Anytime you get a tax break the amount that you really benefit from is a lot smaller. Well this is a move in the right direction.

Yep, a step in the right direction but it isn't nearly enough.

I'd like to see a line on the federal income tax return right below the total tax owed, where the $10,000, travel expenses, and lost pay are deducted.  If it results in a negative number, then carry it over to the next year until it's offset completely.  The savings to the government would be huge, considering what it costs to keep someone on dialysis paid by Medicare.