Taxation

The Record Death function in GiftWrap is designed to make adjustments to the payment and tax information for gift annuities. When an annuitant is deceased, the function can move future payment and tax information to a successor beneficiary, if any, or remove future payment and tax information for terminated gifts and change the gift status to Finished.

However, GiftWrap can make these adjustments automatically only for deaths in the current or immediately prior Organization Year. If the death occurs two or more years earlier than the current Organization Year, the Record Death function will mark the annuitant as deceased, but all adjustments to the payments and tax schedule must be done manually.

Under Republican leadership, Congress is working feverishly to complete the details of sprawling tax reform legislation, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and have it on President Trump’s desk for his signature by the end of this year. The House bill was voted on and approved on November 16.  On the same day, the Senate Finance Committee approved their version of the package.

Everyone likes to avoid capital gains – or more specifically, we should say, everyone likes to avoid the taxes on realized capital gains. That’s a given. When an investor sells assets that have appreciated over time, typically there is tax on the built-up appreciation in those holdings, at least by the federal government, and frequently by the state government as well. The owner of the stock reports capital gains even if the owner of the stock uses the sale proceeds immediately to make charitable gifts. On the other hand, if the donor uses appreciated assets for outright charitable gifts, there is no taxation on the long-term appreciation in the holdings.

The end we are talking about is the end of calendar year 2016.  Are you ready?  Most charities concentrate on year-end giving in the fourth quarter and for good reason.  A study conducted by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University focused on high-net worth donors found that 42.7 percent of those surveyed gave more during the holidays than the rest of the year. Nonetheless, in addition to soliciting and encouraging gifts at the end of the calendar year, it is also a time for planned giving departments to prepare and plan. 

A donor who is thinking of making certain gifts during life needs to pay attention to various requirements to ensure he can claim an income tax charitable deduction. When the same gifts are made upon death, however, these same requirements do not apply – or at least not in the same way.

This ruling provides taxpayers with guidelines on dividing a charitable remainder trust into two or more separate and equal CRTs without violating the provisions of section 664 of the Code. It also provides that, if the division of the CRT is made in accordance with the situations described in the ruling, (i) the division is not a sale, exchange, or other disposition producing gain or loss, the basis under section 1015 of each separate trust’s share of each asset is the same share of the basis of that asset in the hands of the trust immediately before the division of the trust, and, under section 1223, each separate trust’s holding period for an asset transferred to it by the original trust includes the holding period of the asset as held by the original trust immediately before the division, (ii) the division of the CRT does not terminate under section 507(a)(1) the CRT’s status as a trust described in, and subject to, the private foundation provisions of section 4947(a)(2), or result in the imposition of an excise tax under section 507(c), (iii) the division of the CRT does not constitute an act of self-dealing under section 4941, and (iv) the division of the CRT does not constitute a taxable expenditure under section 4945.

Charitable remainder trust; real estate investment trust (REIT). This ruling illustrates the application of section 860E of the Code where a charitable remainder trust is a shareholder of a real estate investment trust (REIT) or a partner of a partnership, and the REIT or the partnership has excess inclusion income.

PG Calc summary This revenue ruling imposes the 5% probability test for charitable remainder annuity trusts. IRS Headnote Charitable transfer; trust remainder; reformed to protect corpus. No deduction is allowable under section 2055 of the Code for a charitable remainder trust that, pursuant to the provisions of section 2055(e)(3), was amended and reformed to meet the conditions of section 20.2055-2(b)(1) of the regulations requiring that only a negligible chance exist that the charitable transfer will not become effective. Full Text Rev. Rul.

This revenue ruling describes the valuation tables to be used for valuing annuity contracts, including charitable gift annuities. IRS Headnote Valuation; annuity contracts.

This revenue ruling confirms that the transfer of a life income interest in a charitable remainder annuity trust qualifies for a charitable deduction.