The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, commonly referred to as the Fiscal Cliff Legislation, was signed into law on January 2, 2013. The new law prevents many of the tax hikes that were scheduled to go into effect this year, and retains many favorable tax breaks that were scheduled to expire. However, it will also create a new 39.6% rate for taxable incomes over $400,000 single, $425,000 (head of household), $450,000 (married filing joint) and $225,000 (married filing separate). Capital gains and qualified dividends rates for individuals in the new tax bracket will also increase to 20%. In addition, the temporary lower 4.2% rate for the employees' portion of the Social Security payroll tax was not extended, and as a result, the rate has reverted to 6.2% on the first $113,700 of income.

While the law does not include a cap or any other direct limitation on charitable contributions, it does re-instate the phase-out of total itemized deductions for those with adjusted gross incomes over $250,000 (single), $275,000 (head of household), $300,000 (married filing joint) and $150,000 (married filing separate) called the "Pease limitation" (named after the Congressional member who sponsored the original provision). What this means is that most itemized deductions, which include charitable donations, are reduced by the lesser of 3% of adjusted gross income over the threshold, or 80% of itemized deductions.

The law also includes extensions through the end of 2013 of several other provisions of interest to tax-exempt organizations: 
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In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the Internal Revenue Service announced additional tax relief to affected individuals and businesses. Some of these provisions are as follows:

Expedited filing of new charity applications:

The IRS announced an expedited review and approval process for all  organizations seeking tax-exempt status to provide relief to victims of Hurricane Sandy. 

Additional time to apply for reinstatement:

Certain organizations that are located in the covered disaster area, and are not current on filing their informational returns with the IRS for 2007, 2008 and 2009 and have automatically lost their tax-exempt status, have until February 1, 2013 to retroactively apply for reinstatement. There is also a reduced application fee of $100.

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