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eRate Newsletter | December 17, 2019

IRS DISCOUNT RATE: January 2.0%

Beware of "Quid Pro Quo"

Charitable gift planners take note: BEWARE OF QUID PRO QUO! Events in Washington these last few weeks have brought the term “quid pro quo” into the national conversation. However, the IRS has long recognized that there can be a quid pro quo in exchange for a charitable gift. There are strict regulations that govern situations where the donor receives a benefit (quid pro quo) in exchange for their charitable gift. The IRS can impose penalties against charities for violations of quid pro quo regulations and donors can find their charitable deduction in jeopardy - or worse in some instances.  

In this month's featured article, Mike Valoris, PG Calc Senior Consultant, discusses the issues donors should be made aware of when it comes to the charitable giving quid pro quo.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE     PRINT THE FULL ARTICLE

UPCOMING WEBINAR

Real World Lessons from Real World Planned Gifts

Presented by
Jeff Lydenberg

Thursday,
December 19
1:00 - 2:30 pm ET

REGISTER

UPCOMING TRAINING

Planned Giving Manager

February 5-6, New York, NY

April 23-24, Atlanta, GA

GiftWrap

March 11-12, Cambridge, MA

 

VIEW

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Quick Tip: Preparing for Tax Season

Year-end is now, and we’ve put together a quick review of the tax reporting process for life income gifts.

  1. The first and most significant task of tax season involves the production of tax reporting forms for charitable gift annuities (CGAs). The IRS requires that a Form 1099-R must be produced and sent for each annuitant of a CGA by January 31. PG Calc’s GiftWrap makes this process fairly straightforward, and on December 11, we recently sent our annual summary of the “Year End Operations and 1099-R Instructions” to all GiftWrap clients. If you are a GiftWrap client and you have not received this message, please contact us.

    Once the 1099-Rs have been sent, the charity will need to respond to notices of address changes and notifications of annuitants who have passed.

  2. The next step is the process of sending the tax information to the IRS. This can be done electronically in GiftWrap, with a deadline of March 31, or for those organizations with 250 annuitants or fewer, the reporting can be done with paper copies of all 1099-Rs (albeit with an earlier deadline of February 28).
  3. In addition to the requirements for CGAs, many organizations are also involved with charitable remainders trusts (CRTs) and / or pooled income funds (PIFs). Unlike the simple Form 1099-R that is used for CGAs, the tax reporting process for CRTs and PIFs requires the preparation and filing of one or more tax returns. All income and capital gains distributed to beneficiaries of those gift vehicles is done on the Form K-1, which is actually a part of the annual tax return.

    Please note: the Forms K-1 for beneficiaries of CRTs and PIFs are required to be completed and sent by April 15. In most cases, however the K-1s will be produced and sent sometime in March.

  4. The final step of tax reporting for CRTs and PIFs is for an authorized person at the charity to approve and file each tax return by April 15.

If you have any questions, please contact PG Calc Client Services at 888-474-2252, or email at support@pgcalc.com.

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ACGA Suggested Maximum Rates Change on January 1

The American Council on Gift Annuities (ACGA) announced a few days before Thanksgiving that its suggested maximum gift annuity rates will be decreasing, effective January 1, 2020. If your organization follows the ACGA rates, be sure to start offering the new rates for gift annuities that will be funded on or after January 1.

If you have your PGM Anywhere account set up to use the current ACGA rates (the default setting), PGM Anywhere will pick the correct ACGA rate before and after January 1, based on the gift date you enter. You don’t need to do anything. However, for your copy of desktop Planned Giving Manager to pick the new ACGA rate for gifts made on or after January 1, you must install PGM 7.5C first. Otherwise, it will continue to use the rates that expire December 31. If you have a specific ACGA rate table or custom rate table selected in either PGM Anywhere or PGM, your software will continue to use that rate table indefinitely.

See our blog post for an analysis of the new rates.

See PGM and PGM Anywhere Updated with New ACGA Rates and 2020 Indexed Tax Tables in this issue for more information on these updates.

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Marketing Corner: The Most Important Marketing Trend for 2020 - Your Donor

As we approach the end of the year, it’s a great time to look ahead and anticipate the next big marketing trend for 2020. Technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, so of course, you might think next year’s big marketing trend would focus on new technology. You’d be wrong. While the use of technology in data-driven marketing will certainly continue to be important in 2020, your overarching focus should be on people. Specifically, spending time improving your donors’ digital experiences.

  READ MORE

pgcBlog

Latest PG Calc Blog Post

How a Charitable Deduction Translates Into Tax Savings

taxSavingsWhy do donors care about the charitable deduction? The charitable deduction is valuable to many donors because it enables them to save taxes. The amount of taxes the donor can save with a given charitable deduction depends on several factors.

READ MORE

 


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PGM and PGM Anywhere Updated with New ACGA Rates and 2020 Indexed Tax Tables

On November 25, we sent an email to all Planned Giving Manager and PGM Anywhere users announcing new releases of these applications that incorporate the American Council on Gift Annuities (ACGA) suggested maximum gift annuity rates that go into effect on January 1, 2020. You must install PGM 7.5C to make use of the new ACGA rates. The new releases also include the indexed federal tax schedules for 2020. If you use either of these products, please see your release email for update instructions and your options for using the new ACGA rates.

If you cannot locate your release email or have questions, please call PG Calc Client Services at 888-474-2252 or email support@pgcalc.com.

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PG Calc's Exciting Education Programs for 2020

For 2020, we are thrilled to offer a wide variety of educational opportunities for clients and other planned giving professionals who want to further develop their planned giving skills and knowledge. For those who need to stay on top of planned giving trends and developments, we offer our webinar program for 2020. Each monthly webinar will offer the latest thinking on a wide range of gift planning topics from PG Calc experts, as well as nationally recognized thought leaders, including Russell James, Johni Hayes, Alasdair Halliday, and Sherrie Beal.

Sign up for the whole 2020 series and save $285.

We’re also delighted to welcome back Craig Wruck in June to offer his popular four-part introduction to planned giving: Fundamentals of Planned Giving. You can sign up for the Fundamentals series here.

We will also offer live classroom training for our applications, including Planned Giving Manager (PGM), PGM Anywhere, and GiftWrap, at locations throughout the country, as well as both live online and on-demand software orientations for our software applications. Software training enables clients to get the most out of our applications, and includes the gift planning or gift administration knowledge necessary to understand the functions available in our software. Visit the software training page on our website to sign up for a course in your area. For online orientations, see the software orientations page on our website.

Also note that we can provide custom training tailored to your program's needs, and delivered either online or at your site.

If you have any questions, please contact PG Calc Client Services at 888-474-2252, or email at support@pgcalc.com.

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Reminder - IRS Discount Rate Postcard Is Online

About a year ago, we announced that we would no longer distribute postcards showing the new monthly IRS discount rate via postal mail. That decision was made for a number of reasons, including the desire to be more "green," and the fact that we update web-based PGM Anywhere with this information for you every month! We continue to distribute this eRate e-newsletter each month, which displays the new rate prominently at the top of every issue, in addition to providing a variety of informative and engaging articles.

We recognize that having current discount rate information is very important to our clients, and you can find the currently applicable rate displayed on every page of our website. In addition, we devote a page on our site to the new rate, where you can find a colorful representation of the postcard showing the last six rates and a current events notice just as before. Bookmark it!

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Fairfield University Partners with PG Calc Marketing Services to Generate Great Results

Fairfield University is a modern, Jesuit Catholic university rooted in one of the world’s oldest intellectual and spiritual traditions. It embraces a liberal humanistic approach to education, encouraging critical thinking, cultivating free and open inquiry, and fostering ethical and religious values. It is located on a stunning 200-acre campus on the scenic Connecticut coast just an hour away from New York City.

Fairfield has had a small planned giving program in place for several decades. Looking to expand its planned giving efforts, Fairfield recently partnered with PG Calc to develop a robust planned gift marketing program.

Stacie Kelly, Senior Director of Planned Giving, had this to say about PG Calc’s Marketing Services:

“For over a decade, I have been using PG Calc’s software to create compelling gift illustrations for my donors. When I learned that PG Calc also offers Marketing Services, I was beyond thrilled. Becoming a PG Calc Marketing Services client was an easy decision. As with everything else PG Calc does, its Marketing Services are the best in the industry."

"My Marketing Services partners, Jennifer Orswell and Andrew Palmer, are amazing to work with. They have helped me develop and implement a strategic planned gift marketing program that is generating great results. PG Calc provides excellent advice on strategy, well written and informative custom content, attractive design services, and detailed data analysis that shows our efforts are working. I am very thankful for PG Calc’s Marketing Services!"

Learn more about Fairfield University.

Learn more about PG Calc's Marketing Services.