Lawrence A. Zelenak (Duke; Google Scholar), Congress: Don’t Make It More Profitable to Donate Than to Sell, 187 Tax Notes Fed. 1443 (May 26, 2025):

Zelenak explains how the proposed 100 percent credit for donations to certain organizations would, as drafted, allow donors of appreciated securities to realize a greater after-tax profit than if they had sold the property — raising the same concerns that prompted Congress to curtail bargain sales to charity in 1969.

The Ways and Means Committee had it right in 1969 when it expressed its belief that the income tax treatment of charitable donations should not “provide greater . . . tax benefits in the case of gifts of property than would be realized if the property were sold and the proceeds were retained by the taxpayer.” It would be a shame if that venerable principle, which has served tax policy well for more than half a century, were now to be abandoned by Congress.

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