From the Blog: Questions to Ask Before Accepting an International Gift

I have a friend, a veterinarian, who told me that one of the first things she was taught about cats is that they are not small dogs. Even though both are companion animals, the similarities between cats and dogs are only fur deep. This anecdote came to mind last month when discussing the challenges of negotiating life income gifts from donors abroad. Because outright gifts to charity are universal, and bequests to charity nearly so, it is tempting to think that split-interest agreements, like charitable gift annuities, charitable trusts, and pooled income funds, are just as ubiquitous. Think again.

Among the nearly 200 countries on the planet, only a few have charitable gift opportunities similar to American charitable gift annuities and charitable trusts. Even when split-interest gift arrangements are allowed, there can still be striking differences. While split-interest agreements turn out to be cats instead of dogs, that doesn’t mean a charity can’t issue a CGA to a foreign donor or an American donor living abroad or pay annuity income to a foreign national. However, both you and your donor may need the services of a legal advisor schooled in international giving to help navigate potential complexities.

Read the blog post . . .

PG Calc’s Ann McPherson and Julia Boerth Featured in Foundation Source Blog

In recognition of International Women’s Day – a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women – Foundation Source created a blog post to share the unique perspectives of ten women on our team, including Ann McPherson, PG Calc’s Marketing Consultant, and Julia Boerth, PG Calc’s Director of Gift Administration. We wanted to know what it’s like to be a woman in business, what inspires them, and what advice they have for the next generation of female leaders. Whether their backgrounds are in planned giving, client services, private foundations, or taxes, they represent a snapshot of the incredible talent in the Foundation Source family, where women are thriving in philanthropy.

Read the blog post . . .

Things We Are Following: What's Next for the Proposed DAF Regulations?

The extended public comment period for the proposed regulations governing Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) expired on February 15. As of this writing we are still waiting for the Treasury Department’s final decision. The proposed regulations focus on defining key terms like DAF, donor, and donor-advisor and specify circumstances under which excise taxes would apply. While the regulations offer some guidance, they do not address all aspects of DAF operations. The effective date of the regulations is not clear, but concern has been expressed that they might be applied retroactively. If you would like to stay updated on the proposed regulations, you can check the IRS website or these resources on our website:

• Upcoming PG Calc Webinar March 28, 2024: Because That’s Where the Money Is: Attracting Gifts from Donor Advised Funds
  Gary Pforzheimer, President, PG Calc, and Renee Kurdzos, Director of Gift Planning, The Nature Conservancy, explore ways charities can attract a slice of the huge and rapidly expanding DAF pie.
  
  
• Foundation Source Webinar Replay: Proposed DAF Treasury Regulations: What This Means for Advisors
  Jeffrey Haskell, Chief Legal Officer, Foundation Source, and Brad Bedingfield, Partner, Hemenway & Barnes, provide an overview of the proposed regulations and their impact (scroll down the page to the video).
  
  
• Featured Article January 2024: Money Talks, But Can It Follow Instructions? The Proposed Donor Advised Fund Regulations 
  Craig Wruck, Senior Advisor, PG Calc, offers a brief history of the evolution of donor advised funds and their relationship to private foundations.

Conspicuous by Its Absence: QCDs and Your Donor’s Form 1040 Filing

If your organization received a qualified charitable distribution (QCD) from a donor’s IRA in 2023 to establish a charitable gift annuity, charitable remainder trust, or outright gift, your donor may ask for advice on how to report their QCD gift as part of their 2023 tax filing.

Unlike other forms of charitable gifts, a QCD does not generate a charitable deduction for the donor. The donor’s tax benefit comes from avoiding taxation on what would otherwise be a taxable withdrawal from their IRA. To take advantage of this tax benefit, the donor does not record the QCD itself on their Form 1040. Rather, they report the effect of making a QCD, which is reduced taxable income. This backwards process can be quite confusing to the donor, and it can help to have the following steps ready to share with them.

1. The donor will enter onto Form 1040 the total distributions from all of their IRAs as reported on the 1099-Rs they received from their IRA custodians.
2. The donor will then subtract their total QCD gifts from this number.
3. The result is entered as the taxable amount and will flow through to the calculation of the donor’s total taxable income.

For instance, if your donor’s 1099-R reports total distributions of $80,000 in 2023, and your donor directed a QCD gift of $50,000 to your organization to establish a charitable gift annuity (CGA), they would complete their Form 1040 as follows:

1. The total distribution of $80,000 is entered into box 4a.
2. The donor then subtracts the $50,000 QCD CGA from this number ($80,000 - $50,000) and the result ($30,000) is entered into box 4b as the taxable amount.
3. The donor then enters “QCD” next to 4b.

If your donor uses common tax preparation software and they enter an amount into box 4b that is less than the total entered in box 4a, they will be asked to report whether the differential is a QCD gift.

While the QCD is conspicuous by its absence on Form 1040, its impact is felt in the reduction of the donor’s total taxable income.

Donors should maintain their QCD tax acknowledgement letter in the same manner that they hold onto tax acknowledgement letters for gifts that produce charitable deductions.

If your donor has additional questions about declaring their QCD gift, you may refer them to pages 26 and 27 of the IRS’s Form 1040 Instructions.

Use FIRE to Avoid Getting Burned on Your 1099-Rs

As a reminder, the deadline for submitting 1099-R information for all gift annuities to the IRS electronically is March 31. This year, charities that issue more than nine 1099-Rs must file their 1099-Rs electronically through the IRS’s Filing Information Returns Electronically (FIRE) system.

PG Calc’s GiftWrap software can create an electronic file for upload to the IRS’s FIRE system. To electronically file with the IRS, your organization will need a Transmitter Control Code (TCC). More information can be found on the IRS website. If you need help with GiftWrap, contact Client Services at support@pgcalc.com or 888-474-2252.

Many donors tend to forget that April 15 is not only the deadline for all individual tax returns, but also for tax returns for charitable remainder trusts (CRTs) and pooled income funds (PIFs). Form K-1s must be sent to all beneficiaries of CRTs and PIFs by this date, although most charities send them earlier to give their donors as much time as possible to complete their returns.

Join Us! Lab Learning in Washington, DC May 15th and 16th

PG Calc heads to Washington, DC for two days of in-person training in basic and advanced gift planning techniques using PGM Anywhere on Wednesday, May 15th, and Thursday, May 16th, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.

Day 1: We’ll explore immediate charitable gift annuities (CGAs), including CGAs funded with qualified charitable distributions (QCDs), as well as deferred gift annuities (DGAs), flexible gift annuities (FGAs), and standard payout charitable trusts. Students will leave with experience in modeling basic gift types, from proposals to income projections, and everything in between.

Day 2: We’ll walk through advanced gift planning techniques, including: flip charitable remainder unitrusts funded with real estate (flip CRUTs), retained life estates (RLEs), and charitable lead trusts (CLTs). We’ll also review gift and estate transfer taxes and discuss how planned gifts can be used to minimize both.

The focus of both days is on hands-on learning using case studies as our primers and PGM Anywhere as our laboratory (lab coats optional). Both sessions end by 4:00 pm, making it possible for fundraisers to squeeze in dinner with a donor or prospect before heading home.

For more information, or to register for one or both days, visit: www.pgcalc.com/insight-education/software-training.

GiftCalcs Accessibility Improved

We take the accessibility of our software to people with disabilities seriously at PG Calc. Our latest example is recent improvements to the accessibility of GiftCalcs, our online planned giving calculator for charity websites. We have followed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 to guide our work. GiftCalcs now supports all applicable Level A criteria and all but two applicable Level AA criteria. We aim for a similar level of accessibility in all our software.

Praise for PG Calc’s Expertise and Our Decision Tree to Determine the Best Asset to Fund an Outright Gift

“Thank you for this decision tree. It's an awesome resource that I will use often in my conversations with donors. Thank you for always being the BEST source for planned giving expertise.”

-- Jeannette Edwards
Director, Major Gifts and Planned Giving
Chester County Hospital Foundation

Learn more about The Chester County Hospital Foundation.

Download PG Calc’s Decision Tree to Determine the Best Asset to Fund an Outright Gift.