taxes

Q & A in Planned Giving Tomorrow – IRAs, RMDs, and QCDs – Familiar with these?

Image result for q & a Recently, I’ve starting submitting for the Q & A section in Planned Giving Tomorrow – Here’s my first submission….

QUESTION

We are looking at some RMD info related to Jane’s IRA account, and we are assuming that the school satisfies the QCD requirement, but just want to check.

ANSWER

Highly focused people (usually the successful ones) often miss the easy stuff in their focus on the bottom line: raising money now. The question above came to me via email from a top capital campaign consultant. He really knows his stuff. And yet, he had to ask me what RMD and QCD meant!

Do you know?

RMD is Required Minimum Distribution. That is an amount you are required (as an individual over age 70.5) to withdraw from your IRA and other qualified retirement accounts annually.

Why is this so important?

The IRA charitable rollover provision (which is, by the way, PERMANENT now if you hadn’t heard!) allows donors age 70.5 and older to give up to $100,000 to your charity directly from their IRAs. It doesn’t work for other retirement accounts—yet. It just so happens that the law allows donors to direct their RMDs (which would be fully taxable to them) to your charity without any taxes. This assumes your charity is QCD eligible.

You know that one, right? QCD means Qualified Charitable Distributions. If you are a regular charity – not a Donor Advised Fund or a Supporting Organization—you are more than likely QDC eligible. In a nutshell, using the charitable rollover provision gives donors an opportunity to support a cause they care about and avoid taxes on their RMD! Donors in this age range get this. You should, too, as these can be easy $100,000 gifts. Even if your donor has already taken their RMDs (which you can’t un-take), using an IRA to make a gift to charity is still a great idea. Talk it up with your donors!

If you have interesting questions that you wouldn’t mind being published in this blog and/or in Planned Giving Tomorrow, email your Q’s to me at jonathan@plannedgivingadvisors.com. And, check out Planned Giving Tomorrow by clicking here!

DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT OUR SUMMER LINE-UP OF WEBINAR PROGRAMS!

Interesting opportunities as a result of the new tax law

Image result for Interesting opportunities cartoon Slowly, we are starting to realize there are interesting opportunities as a result of the new tax law. Many will take months or longer to come out.

Here is one – in addition to the most obvious that people with estate planning attorneys are likely going back to them as we speak:

No longer needed life insurance!

Yes, many life insurance policies were created specifically to pay any federal estate tax liability – saving the principal of the estate for the family.

But now the estate tax exemption just jumped to $11.2 million per person from $5.6 million per person. In other words, anyone who had such a life insurance policy should be talking to their insurance/financial planner. Why not do something charitable with that policy?

Want to get up to speed on the new tax law and various planned giving options?

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE ON OUR NEXT PLANNED GIVING BOOT CAMP

CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR SUMMER LINE UP WEBINAR TRAINING SESSIONS

Largest Single Gift – $6.24 Million – to Henry Street Settlement

This very nice woman was a legal secretary until age 96 – probably never someone who stood out for fundraisers to fawn over. (CLICK HERE OR THE PICTURE TO SEE THE STORY IN THE NEW YORK TIMES)

Yet, she just left close to $9 million to fund scholarships, with the Henry Street Settlement receiving $6.24 million, their largest single gift (probably by far) via a charitable bequest (i.e. one of the many unknown planned giving donors who quietly make a huge impact after their lives).

Check your nonprofit org’s records. Who’s made the 5 largest gifts to the institution?

I would be surprised if bequests or other planned giving options don’t comprise at least 4 out of your top 5.

Fundraisers and heads of nonprofits – take note! Sylvia Bloom – the woman in the picture – actually left most of her estate to be used for scholarships at the discretion of her niece (who happens to be on the board of the Henry Street Settlement)!

Sylvia and her niece are both incredible people. But, just think about this. What if Sylvia had been one of your long term direct mail donors – I am guessing that she supported plenty of charities during her life.

Imagine if your org had any planned giving efforts – maybe planned giving newsletters or other marketing that encouraged Sylvia to consider your organization as a recipient of her legacy giving. Then image if your organization didn’t do anything in planned giving.

Think about the missed opportunity. Sylvia probably didn’t receive much direct planned giving content and opted to allow her niece full discretion over her legacy.

For nonprofits in America who been around awhile (15 or more years) to not engage in any meaningful planned giving efforts is just irresponsible.

The country is aging fast. Your data base is probably aging faster. Planned giving is really the only sensible way to make sure your institution has a decent chance to share in estates like Sylvia’s.

So where do you start? Check out our Planned Giving Boot Camp 6-part webinar crash course by CLICKING HERE.

Or, our Summer 2018 line up of training programs! CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE

Ok, so I have to plug more courses at any chance I have. Seriously, these courses are all designed to put immediately useful tools and ideas into your hands. You’ll learn about creating your own Legacy Opener (patent pending;). I’ll tell you which planned giving marketing options work and which don’t! Which vehicles are appropriate and which are not! And, not too much on the technical end!

Thank you for making it to the end of this post! I wonder how many readers actually get this far!

Pease is gone!! What was that anyway?

Marginal Tax Rate Of Additional Income Impacted By Pease Limitation

TO see blog post go to https://www.kitces.com/blog/how-the-personal-exemption-phaseout-pep-and-pease-limitation-are-really-just-1-income-surtaxes/

The new tax plan eliminates the Pease limitations! Did you even know it existed? Was it important?

“This provision, named after the late Congressman Donald Pease, reduceD the value of itemized deductions for high income taxpayers. It worked by reducing the value of a taxpayer’s itemized deductions by 3 percent for every dollar of taxable income above a certain threshold ($254,200 single; $305,050 married). The phase-out of the value of itemized deductions is capped at 80 percent of the total value of itemized deductions.” Click here if you want to see a good blog post on it. (I made the quote in past tense)

Basically, Pease was a surtax on charitable giving for those around $250,000 and up! (it impacted all deductions but the charitable deduction is the most discretionary of the deductions – the one someone at that income level may think twice about a larger gift (if notified by their accountant of the surtax).

Yes, it is so complex that I can’t remember how it was calculated (why bother figuring it out again now that it is gone!) BUT this change, as well as a bunch of other “goodies” in the new tax bill, may be big opportunities!!!

Want to learn more about opportunities for nonprofits (and some challenges) due to the new law? THIS MONDAY AT NOON est, I AM GIVING A BRIEFING ON THE NEW LAW!!! CLICK HERE TO REGISTER – WE WILL BE GOING OVER 20 IMPORTANT CHANGES TO THE LAW THAT MAY HELP YOUR ORG RAISE MORE MONEY.