What seems charitable may not always be deductible in the eyes of the IRS

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What seems charitable may not always be deductible in the eyes of the IRS

With such a wide range of options available for you and your family to support your favorite causes and your community, ranging from crowdfunding to online solicitations, how do you know whether (and why) your donations are eligible for funding out of your account at The Community Foundation?

In short, contributions to organizations and causes that would fall into the non-tax-deductible category, although worthy investments to help the community, generally are not eligible recipients of grants from your funds at The Community Foundation. Remember, you received a tax deduction when you transferred assets to your fund at The Community Foundation, which means the money needs to be distributed to charitable organizations and causes qualified to receive tax-deductible contributions.

If you’re interested in the legal background, keep reading!

Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code lays out the requirements for organizations to be considered tax-exempt, meaning they don’t pay taxes. This is a status for which an organization must seek IRS approval.

Even under Section 501(c), there are different types of nonprofits that are recognized by the IRS as tax-exempt. To qualify specifically under the Internal Revenue Code Section 170 charitable deduction for gifts to Section 501(c)(3) organizations, the recipient organization must be organized and operated exclusively for “charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition, and the prevention of cruelty to children or animals.” In other words, “charitable,” according to the IRS, has a very specific definition. Your funds at The Community Foundation help you support the 501(c)(3) charitable organizations you and your family care about.

Separate from your charitable donations, perhaps you and your family also support social welfare groups (organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code). Examples of social welfare groups include neighborhood associations, veterans organizations, volunteer fire departments, and other civic groups whose net earnings are used to promote the common good. Donations to social welfare groups are tax deductible in only certain cases (e.g., gifts to volunteer fire departments and veterans organizations). Your fund at The Community Foundation can’t be used to support non-tax-deductible civic causes, but certainly you can continue supporting these causes out of your personal assets.

Similarly, chambers of commerce and other business leagues fall under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(6); donations to these entities are not tax deductible, either.

In addition to your civic activities, perhaps you’ve also helped set up a dedicated account at a bank to provide scholarships to the children of an accident victim, or even participated in a GoFundMe fundraiser to help a specific family. These vehicles, along with other crowdfunding platforms, typically do not meet the qualifications for a charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3), usually because the funds are earmarked for a particular person or persons.

We know the rules are complex and can be overwhelming! If you have any questions about the tax deductibility of your contributions to various organizations, and whether your community foundation funds can be deployed to make the contributions, please reach out to the team at The Community Foundation. We are immersed in the world of Section 501(c) every single day and are happy to help you navigate the rules.

The team at The Community Foundation is honored to serve as a resource and sounding board as you build your charitable plans and pursue your philanthropic objectives for making a difference in the community. We also encourage you to consult your tax or legal advisor to learn how this information might apply to your own situation. 

Call us any time from 9am to 5pm Monday through Friday at 540-432-3863 for questions. www.tcfhr.org

 

Is the cost of event tickets tax deductible?

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Is the cost of event tickets tax deductible?

As charitable organizations emerge from pandemic restrictions, in-person fundraising events are beginning to rebound, especially athletic events that are held outside. This is a good time for a quick refresher course on the charitable deduction rules related to events, which can be tricky.

As a general rule, if you purchase a ticket to a fundraising event and attend the event, the IRS only allows a tax deduction for the portion of the ticket price for which you received nothing of tangible value in return. So, when the charity sends a receipt for the gift, you will see that the charity has subtracted the fair market value of the perks–food, beverage, entertainment, T-shirts, and other goodies–from the full amount of the contribution. The rules for raffles, auctions, and games of chance are also complex, exacerbated by the increase in virtual events and online fundraisers.

What’s the reason for all of this complexity? Simply put, tax-deductible dollars cannot be used for private benefit. The point of the charitable tax deduction is to incentivize taxpayers to use their own money to help others. Even when a portion of a donation can be tied to funding the charity’s programs, the intermingling of event-related benefits back to the donor (even if it’s just a T-shirt or a dinner) becomes too much of a tangled web, in the IRS’s view, to discern the true amount of the charitable deduction, and without that clarity, none of it is deductible.

The good news here is that the team at The Community Foundation is on top of it. We are here to answer your questions about tax deductibility and how to help the charities you care about.

Call us any time from 9am to 5pm Monday through Friday at 540-432-3863 for questions. www.tcfhr.org

 

Summer legislative updates–and looking ahead to sunsets

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Summer legislative updates–and looking ahead to sunsets

Reconciliation legislation is back in play, and includes a few tax provisions (e.g., adding a corporate minimum tax and eliminating the carried interest tax break). Notably, though, the proposal includes $80 billion in budget increases for the Internal Revenue Service, which will help shore up the IRS’s expertise and pay for enforcement efforts to collect taxes.

Philanthropic individuals and families and their advisors also continue to watch the status of SECURE 2.0 because of the enhancements it proposes to the rules for Qualified Charitable Distributions.

While potential tax reform through budget reconciliation legislation may be top of mind for taxpayers and advisors, it’s also important to remember that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2018 (which seems like a long, long time ago!) included several changes to the tax rules for individuals that are set to expire after the close of the 2025 tax year. Unless those provisions are extended, the sunsets could impact tax planning for philanthropic families and individuals. For example, the standard deduction will decrease by nearly half, adjusted for inflation. This means some clients may once again itemize their deductions, thereby influencing charitable giving income tax strategies. In addition, the estate and gift tax exemption amount, increased under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, will be cut down so that in 2026 the exemption amount will be approximately $6.2 million adjusted for inflation. This will impact not only estates valued above the current exemption amount of $12.06 million but also estates valued in the $6 to $12 million range.

As your clients begin to set their philanthropic goals for the next several years, the team at The Community Foundation is happy to help structure long-term strategies to maximize not only your clients’ tax benefits, but also the benefits to the community. Our professionals are deeply familiar with the short-term, mid-term, and long-term needs of our community, as well as the nonprofits that are working to address those needs. Our experienced team works with you to help your clients support community needs now and in the future through clients’ donor-advised funds, field of interest funds, designated funds, and other vehicles established at The Community Foundation. We strive to align the interests of everyone involved: your client, the charities your client wants to support to improve our community, and you in your trusted role as the client’s advisor.

Learn more at www.tcfhr.org, email Revlan at [email protected], or give us a call at 540-432-3863.

 

Generational giving through retirement plans, life insurance, and meaningful bequests

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Generational giving through retirement plans, life insurance, and meaningful bequests

August is national Make a Will Month. You’ve likely already worked with your advisors to establish an estate plan, including a will and even a trust. Still, this is a good time of year to review your plan in case things have changed.

As you review your estate plan, consider whether your documents are aligned with your philanthropic intentions, especially if you’ve captured your philanthropic intentions through one or more funds at The Community Foundation. A fund at The Community Foundation can be an ideal recipient of estate gifts through a will or trust, or through a beneficiary designation on a qualified retirement plan or life insurance policy.

In particular, bequests of qualified retirement plans can be extremely tax-efficient. This is because charitable organizations such as The Community Foundation are tax-exempt. This means the funds flowing directly to your fund at The Community Foundation from a retirement plan after your death will not be reduced by income tax. This also means the assets will not be subject to estate tax.

Don’t overlook life insurance, either. Not only are you able to designate a fund at The Community Foundation as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, but in some cases you also may elect to transfer actual ownership of certain types of policies. For example, if you were to make an irrevocable assignment of an eligible whole life policy to your fund at The Community Foundation, a tax-deductible gift of the cash value of the policy occurs at the time of the transfer. A gift like this could potentially ease your income tax burden, especially if the Foundation continues to own the policy and you make annual tax deductible gifts to cover the premiums.

The Community Foundation makes it easy for you to work with your advisor to draft bequest terms in legal documents, including beneficiary designations of retirement plans and life insurance policies. Please ask your advisor to contact our team for the exact language that will ensure alignment with your intentions. In many cases, anytime during your lifetime, you may even update the terms of a fund at The Community Foundation that you’ve designated to receive a bequest upon your death.

Learn more at www.tcfhr.org, email Revlan at [email protected], or give us a call at 540-432-3863.

 

Playbook: Helping clients organize their giving through a donor-advised fund

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Picture this: Your clients will arrive in 15 minutes. You’re reviewing the file. Everything is in order. The estate planning documents are up to date, you’re ready to share the latest investment results, and you are prepared to debrief the 2021 tax season and make tax planning recommendations for the remainder of this year. It sounds pretty typical up to this point, right?

As you continue to scroll through the materials, you see the names of several charitable organizations that your clients have supported every year for at least a decade. Ah ha! This is an opportunity to add even more value to your clients. Easy for a busy advisor to overlook, charitable giving habits are actually an important window into helping a client make planning decisions around their philanthropic intentions.

Here’s a simple playbook to guide you through a client conversation to begin establishing a charitable giving plan using a donor-advised fund at The Community Foundation.

  • Call your clients’ attention to their charitable giving history. They might not even be aware of how much they are giving or how long they’ve been supporting their favorite charities.
  • Gather more information about why the clients support those particular causes. Family tradition? Past involvement as a beneficiary of an organization’s services? Desire to impact a particular area of need?
  • Talk with your clients about their community involvement. Do they serve on any boards of directors? Do they volunteer at local organizations?
  • Review any charitable giving provisions in the current will or trust. Are the clients leaving a bequest to favorite charities?
  • Ask your clients if they’ve ever considered organizing their giving through a donor-advised fund. If they are not familiar with donor-advised funds, perhaps offer a quick primer, and certainly offer to introduce the client to a member of The Community Foundation team.
  • Briefly mention that a donor-advised fund can be an effective alternative to a private foundation, thanks to fewer expenses to establish and maintain, maximum tax benefits (higher AGI limitations and fair market valuation for contributing hard-to-value assets), no excise taxes, and confidentiality (including the ability to grant anonymously to charities).
  • Also mention that a donor-advised fund at The Community Foundation is frequently a more effective choice than a donor-advised fund offered through a brokerage firm (such as Fidelity or Schwab). That’s because, at a community foundation, the donor is part of a community of giving and has opportunities to collaborate with other donors who share similar interests. In addition, the donor is supported in strategic grant making, family philanthropy, and opportunities to gain deep knowledge about local issues and nonprofits making a difference.

Want to learn more? Call The Community Foundation at 540-432-3863 or email Kristin Coleman at [email protected]!

Employment Opportunity at TCFHR

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The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg & Rockingham County is currently hiring. For more information review the recent job posting.

2017 Annual Report

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Learn More About a 65% Virginia State Tax Credit Opportunity

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The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) Tax Credit Program is a way to support educational opportunities for local students and receive a 65% Virginia state tax credit on top of current state and federal charitable deductions. These state tax credits may be used in the tax year they are issued.

 

This program is similar to NAP credits, but is for individual or business donors interested in supporting scholarships at private K-12 schools in Virginia. Donations provide scholarship funds to support students of families that meet financial need criteria. The credits may not exceed the tax liability, but can be carried over for five succeeding years.

 

This year, the state has authorized up to $25 million in Education Improvement Tax Credits. The credits are readily available, but December 14th is a critical deadline to get this done for calendar year 2016 tax filings. It takes up to 2 weeks to receive the authorization allowing the taxpayer to make a qualified donation. Please note that donation checks may not be written before authorization is received.

 

The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg & Rockingham County is an approved scholarship foundation for the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). Our staff will be glad to help you work through the process, and we can expedite application for these credits by sending forms electronically to the state. Program details and the Preauthorization Form can be found on the Virginia Department of Education website.

 

Please contact Ann at 540-432-3863 or [email protected], if you have questions regarding this program, or if The Community Foundation staff can be of assistance in any way.