St Mark Blog

Take Advantage of new IRA Charitable rollover legislation

Greetings!

New federal tax legislation was enacted in December 2010 regarding IRA Charitable Rollovers.

Normally, a distribution from your IRA is taxed as ordinary income. Under the new tax legislation -for the remainder of 2011- if you are 70 ½ or older you are allowed to make a direct gift from your IRA to St. Mark without the distribution taxed as income to you. The IRA charitable rollover law may provide a very good charitable giving vehicle if you are age   70 ½ and take the standard deduction rather than itemize deductions on your tax return. The law also may reduce the tax impact on your Social Security benefits. Your IRA could be considered a special resource for distributions to St. Mark without the normal consequences of reporting additional taxable income.

The distribution must be from your IRA, not a 401(k) or other retirement plan. Do consult with your financial or tax advisor about the possibility of transferring funds from one of these other plans to establish an IRA, with the distributions charity coming from the newly established IRA. The IRA distribution must be a direct charitable gift and not a distribution to a charitable gift annuity or a charitable remainder trust.

To take advantage or the IRA charitable rollover to help support St. Mark, please review the following helpful tips on how to correctly handle your charitable gift:

• Contact your IRA custodian or representative-before making a gift- to arrange for the proper transfer of funds from your IRA directly to St. Mark. The check issued from your IRA must be made payable to St. Mark Catholic Church.
• If you have elected to have income tax withheld from your normal IRA distributions, advise your IRA administrator not to withhold taxes from distributions to St. Mark.
• Allow for plenty of time to process the gift as it may take longer than anticipated.
• While this topic is fresh on your mind, ask your attorney and financial advisor how to make St. Mark a beneficiary of your will, trust or IRA.

These helpful tips are only for your information regarding the change in the IRA law and are not to be considered as legal, tax, or financial advice. You should consult your legal, tax and financial advisors to implement the benefits of the IRA charitable rollover law.

I would be remiss if I did not mention many are already so generously giving of your resources – both financially and your God-given abilities.  This parish community is so deeply grateful for those gifts.  The ministries of St. Mark, simply, could not happen without your wonderful generosity.  Thank you! Living as faithful stewards of God’s gifts is the best gift we can offer.  God will do the rest!  We promise to be responsible stewards of the support you give to the work of our parish.  We are all partners in this journey of faith!

May we continue to be blessed by our most wonderful Lord!

Kevin Sweeney                                                                                                                   Parish Business Manager