Excellent Tax News That Can Benefit You and Unitarian Universalist Society: East in Tax Year 2015 (Time is of the essence)

In year-end legislation passed just last weekend, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 finally made permanent charitable distributions (QCDs), also known as Charitable IRA Rollovers, from individual retirement accounts from individuals who are at least 70 1/2 years of age. There is still time to take advantage of this change for 2015 tax purposes, but the transfer must be made properly by Thursday, December 31.

Because QCDs are finally permanent, now’s a good time to review the rules.

Requirements

• Only individuals who’ve attained age 70½ may make QCDs.
• The charitable donee must be an organization, such as UUSE, that qualifies for a charitable income tax deduction of an individual other than a private (grant-making) foundation, a donor-advised fund or a supporting organization under Internal Revenue Section Section 509(a)(3).
• The charity that receives the donation must provide the same contribution acknowledgment needed to claim a charitable income tax deduction. Failure to obtain the acknowledgment will quash the QCD, but UUSE will definitely give you the proper acknowledgment in a timely manner for all your tax filings.
• QCDs may be made from any IRA, but not from a 401k, 403b, simplified employee pension, a simple retirement account or an inherited IRA. Total such contributions cannot total more than $100,000 in any one tax year.

Some Benefits

• This will allow you to essentially deduct your QCD charitable contributions on your Connecticut income tax, which is not currently allowed otherwise.
• If you don’t itemize your tax deductions, QCDs can allow you to make charitable contributions that in effect have the tax benefits of deductions.
• There are other advantages, too!

Making The Contribution

To make a contribution, contact UUSE or your intended charity to determine the exact payee name for the check (in UUSE’s case it’s Unitarian Universalist Society: East). Then, using that name, instruct your IRA trustee, administrator or custodian to make a transfer from the IRA directly to the charity. Many trustees and custodians already have forms and procedures in place to make this transfer. It won’t qualify if the trustee or custodian makes the mistake of putting IRA money in a non-IRA account of yours as an intermediate step. It won’t qualify if the check is made out to you. The law doesn’t provide a way to correct mistakes. The Internal Revenue Service hasn’t said whether the check may be made payable to the charity but mailed to you so that you may deliver it to the charity yourself. For the transfer to qualify for 2015, it must be out of your IRA account and on its way to the organization on or before Thursday, December 31, 2015.

For more information, please contact the church office or Hal Reed, of the Finance and Stewardship Committees, at 860-648-0898 or 860-967-9408 (cell).

Thank you for considering this excellent, now permanent, giving possibility – and Happy Holidays!