If you are over age 70-1/2 and have an IRA, you know that you are required to take distributions.
However, with a new law that was signed by President Obama on December 17th, you can donate to charity from your IRA and not have that distribution be counted by the IRS as income.
This provision has been available in the past and the new law extends the provision to December 31, 2011, plus gives donors until January 31, 2011, to make donations from their IRA for the 2010 tax year.
Donors in Grundy County who meet the criteria are encouraged to take advantage of this law extension to benefit the charities they care about, and the Community Foundation of Grundy County has various services to help.
If you know which charities you care about most, you can have your IRA administrator cut a check directly to the charity with your compliments. This includes any of our fellow not-for-profits in Grundy County, across the nation, and the Community Foundation of Grundy County. Unrestricted donations to us are used to fund our work in coordinated public transportation, the Growth Conference, the Back-to-School Fair, the Grundy Partnership for Children, and 941-HELP.
If you have a sizable IRA distribution and want to support your favorite charity for a longer term, we suggest you set up an endowment here at the community foundation.
A Designated Fund supports the charity of your choice. The principal is invested and the earnings are forwarded to the charity for their unrestricted use on an annual basis.
An Agency Fund can be set up by a donor but the withdrawal decisions are made by the charity.
A Field of Interest Fund supports a broad category such as “the arts,” “healthcare,” “historic preservation,” and “agriculture.” The Grants and Program Committee of the Foundation partners with local organizations working in that area to use these monies throughout the county for the benefit of all.
A Scholarship Fund provides scholarships for students. The details for the criteria are established by the donor and an impartial committee reviews applications and finalizes the awards.
It should be noted that, under the new law, IRA distributions cannot be used to set up Donor Advised Funds and still get the income benefit. Only the funds listed above meet the criteria that allows IRA distributions to not be counted as income.
Please call us at 941-0852 to get a fact sheet and to learn more about our scholarship, designated, agency, and field of interest funds that are eligible for this IRA Charitable Rollover provision.