Tax Deduction Archives - Charity Exchange

Are you getting the most bang for your donated bucks

YV — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 19:14:05 +0000

Twenty Seven present of donors said they gave more in 2020 than the year before.

An interesting article by Rivan V. Stinson on October 28, 2021 in the Kiplinger.

When the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act nearly doubled the standard deduction starting with the 2018 tax year, charities and tax experts expected donations to drop. Nearly one-third of taxpayers itemized deductions—including charitable giving—before the tax law overhaul, and the number of itemizers fell to 11% in 2018. Because charitable givers would no longer have the same tax-deduction incentive, the thinking went, charitable giving would suffer.

Indeed, giving by individual donors dipped 4.2% in 2018 from the previous year, according to Giving USA Foundation and the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. But in 2019, donations bounced back 4.7%. And charitable giving kept rising dramatically as Americans responded to the pandemic and a variety of natural disasters. In a recent Fidelity Charitable study, 27% of donors said they gave more in 2020 than the year before.

The pandemic also changed how some people give. Individual donors, corporations and family foundations gifted more money to general need funds or to a charity’s general operating fund instead of writing a check for a specific project. Some projects—such as after-school programs—were on hiatus due to local shutdowns, and donors became more concerned about addressing pressing needs, particularly food and housing.

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_{Legal Notice: Opinions in this blog post do not reflect the opinion or endorsement of Charity Exchange or its affiliates. The opinions in this post should not be used as legal or financial advice for any financial decision. The advice or opinions shared in this blog post are solely those of the author and are not the opinion of Charity Exchange or its affiliates. For legal or financial advice, always consult with your financial advisor or legal council.}

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How to get a tax deduction for donations to U.S. charities

YV — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 14:03:53 +0000

An interesting article by Janmie Golombek of CIBC Wealth Advisory Services in Toronto Published in the Financial Post explores how Canadians can get a tax deduction for a donation to a US charity.

In a nutshell, if your tax return includes some U.S. source income, such as U.S. dividends for example, you can claim your gifts to U.S. charities up to 75 per cent of the net U.S. income you reported on your Canadian return. In a couple of cases, however, you may be able to claim your U.S. gifts up to 75 per cent of your worldwide net income. The first situation is if you live in Canada, but near the U.S. border, throughout the year and commute to your principal workplace or business in the U.S., provided that U.S. employment or business was your main source of income for the year. Secondly, your U.S. donation claim won’t be limited to only your net U.S. income if your gift was made to a U.S. college or university at which you or a family member either is or was enrolled, or if your gift is to a prescribed U.S. university “the student body of which ordinarily includes students from Canada.”

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The tax treaty between Canada and the U.S. provides some limited tax relief for gifts made by Canadians to U.S. charitable organizations, but the rules are slightly complicated.

Our tax system offers generous benefits to donors who choose to make gifts to registered charities. Individuals can claim both federal and provincial tax credits worth up to 50 per cent of the amount donated, depending on your province of residence. Corporations can claim a deduction from their taxable income for qualifying donations. In both cases, the amount that can be claimed is limited to 75 per cent of net income for the year.

So, what exactly constitutes a valid donation?

How to get a tax deduction for donations to U.S. charities

Well for starters, the gift must be made to a registered charity, which is defined as a charitable organization, public or private foundation that is resident in Canada and that has obtained official Canada Revenue Agency registered status. As of this week, there are 85,881 registered charities in Canada.

You can find out whether the charity you wish to benefit is registered by visiting the CRA’s website (cra-arc.gc.ca) and on the “Charities and giving” page, going to the “Charities Search” box.

But what if you make a donation to a U.S. charity?

You’re in luck, since the tax treaty between Canada and the U.S. does provide some limited tax relief for gifts made by Canadian residents and corporations to U.S. charitable organizations, but the rules are slightly complicated.

A recent decision from the Court of Quebec, however, spells trouble for Quebec donors looking to donate money to U.S. charities. The court ruled that a Quebec manufacturing company was precluded from claiming nearly $500,000 worth of U.S. donations on its Quebec return against its U.S. source income, finding that the section of the Canada-U.S. tax treaty that would otherwise allow the claim doesn’t apply to Quebec since Quebec is not a party to the Treaty.

Troy McEachren, a tax partner with Miller Thomson LLP in Montreal, called the court’s interpretation “problematic” in a case comment issued this week. He argues that the interpretation is “overly technical and ignores the purpose of the provision, which is to permit the application to Quebec’s fiscal legislation of the effects of tax treaties entered into by Canada.”

Fortunately for Quebec donors, the company has appealed the decision to the Court of Appeal of Quebec. So, stay tuned, but in the meantime, Quebec donors may wish to tread cautiously.

Click here to read the full article

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University Alumni living in Canada donating to US Organizations.

YV — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 16:18:30 +0000

The top 20 universities in the United States are Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Columbia University, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Cornell University, New York University (NYU), University of Chicago, Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Southern California, Northwestern University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Michigan, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Brown University.

There are many Canadian residents who are expats or are alumni of Universities or Colleges in the United States. At times the university, college or community organization in the US hold fundraisers and the expat or alumni seek to donate and or support their cause. Often the question of receiving a Canadian tax-deductible receipt for the donation to the charity in the US is discussed and explored.

For example, alumnus of Harvard University, Stanford University or Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who are living in Canada and want to support their former school with a donation of $10,000. When sending the donation directly to the American institution, the university may issue a US tax-deductible receipt. However, the former student is currently residing and working in Canada and the US tax-deductible receipt offers no tax benefit or deduction on their tax return.

Charity Exchange offers a solution that can help alumnus in Canada of US educational institutions make a US tax-deductible donation to the Canadian institution through their donation matching program. The donor signs up for a charity exchange donor advised fund account and makes a matching donation using the global matching donation platform. The donations is matched with donors in the US and the US charity or institution receives their donation from the US Donor Advised Foundation.

To learn more about the donation matching program click here

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Alumni living in the US donating to charities in Canada.

YV — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 14:09:26 +0000

The top 10 universities in Canada are University of Toronto, The University of British, Simon Fraser University, McGill University, University of Waterloo, York University, University of Alberta, Queen’s University, University of Calgary, McMaster University.

There are US residents who are expats or are alumni of Universities or Colleges in Canada. At times the university, college or community organization hold fundraisers and the expat or alumni seek to donate and or support their cause. Often the question of receiving a US tax-deductible receipt for the donation to the charity in Canada is discussed and explored.

For example, alumnus of the University of Toronto, McGill University of Montreal or University of BC who are living in the US and want to support their former school with a donation of $5,000. When sending the donation directly to the Canadian institution, the university may issue a Canadian tax-deductible receipt. However, the former student are currently residing and working in the US and the Canadian tax-deductible receipt offers no tax benefit or deduction on their tax return.

Charity Exchange offers a solution that can help alumnus of educational institutions in Canada make a US tax-deductible donation to the Canadian institution through their donation matching program. The donor signs up for a charity exchange donor advised fund account and makes a matching donation using the global matching donation platform. The donations is matched with donors in Canada and the Canadian charity or institution receives their donation from the Canadian Donor Advised Foundation.

To learn more about the donation matching program click here

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Tax-Deductible Donations to Yeshiva or Seminary in Israel, Canada or USA

YV — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 17:44:05 +0000

Are you looking to make a tax-deductible donation to a charity abroad?

Would you like to send charitable funds to a Yeshiva, seminary, Shul, Chessed organization, school, camp, or any other charitable organization outside your home country? Do you run a charity and have Donors in other countries who would like to make a tax-deductible donation to your charity?

Charity Exchange Can help! Charity Exchange’s new and revolutionary method of cross border donations can help donors and charities make tax-deductible donations to charities abroad.

Charity Exchange’s charitable foundation and Donor Advised Fund operates in the USA, Canada and Israel. The Foundation offers a Global Donation Matching program. The Global Donation Matching program is a great tool for donors to use when seeking to support charities outside their home country. The benefit of donating to the foundation and using the donation matching program, is that all donations are tax-deductible. Donors receive a tax-deductible receipt for funds deposited to their Donor Advised Fund Account.

How does the matching donation program work?

The concept of the global matching donation program is to pair two (or more) donors from different countries and match their donations. Each donor’s donation supports the other donor’s charity.

Here is an example of how it works.

Justin, from Montreal Canada, wants to make a $1,300 CAD donation to the American Red Cross. Justin sets up an account and creates a $1,300 donation to be matched and sent to the American Red Cross. The donation is pending on the charity exchange platform until a matching donation is found in the USA.

How is a matching donation found?

Joe, from Washington DC in the USA, wants to make a $1,000 USD donation to Feed the Poor Canada organization. Joe creates a $1,000 donation to be matched and sent to Feed the Poor Canada. The donation is instantly matched with Justin’s pending donation to the American Red Cross.

The result, Justin from Canada’s $1,300 CAD donation is sent to Feed the Poor Canada to support Joe’s, from Washington, selected charity. And Joe from Washington $1,000 USD donation is sent to the American Red Cross to support Justin’s, from Canada, selected charity. Essentially the donors exchange donations by making a recommendation (to the Donor Advised fund) to donate their funds to the charity the other donor selected.

To use the service, the donor would need to open a Charity Exchange account and deposit a donation to their Donor Advised Fund account. Once the funds are donated and cleared in the Donor’s account the donor can recommend a donation to any registered charity in the countries Charity Exchange operates in using the matching donation program. Charity Exchange operates in Canada, Israel, and the USA.

Is personal information kept private?

Yes, the donor’s personal information is strictly private and confidential. When a donation match is made and paired with another donor’s donation the donors do not see who they are matched with. Only the receiving charity can see the donor who selected their charity for their donation but not the other donor. Charity Exchange has a strict privacy policy and does not share personal information with any other party.

Are there other unique features offered by Charity Exchange?

Yes. We accept Bitcoin and other Crypto currency donations

Crypto currency donations are an emerging trend for charitable giving. More and more donors are looking to donate crypto to their favourite charities. However, many charities do not have the know how or the tools to accept crypto donations.

Charity Exchange provides a platform for donors and charities to donate and accept crypto currency. Donors deposit their crypto currency into their Donor Advised Fund account and receive a tax-deductible receipt for the fair market value of their crypto currency. Donors then gift the donation to any registered charity in the countries Charity Exchange operates in.

Can Charities Use the Crypto Donate service to accept donations?

Yes. Charities can open a Charity Exchange account and direct donors to their charity profile page on the Charity Exchange platform. Charities can also track the incoming donations and send thank you letters to donors directly from their charity account.

How does Charity Exchange accept crypto currency?

Charity Exchange currently accepts three types of crypto currency, BITCOIN, ETHEREUM and USDC. Donors deposit crypto currency into their Donor Advised Fund account. Once the deposit is complete, charity exchange converts the crypto currency to USDC and redeems the USDC crypto currency for the local fiat currency. In the US it is converted to USD, in Canada to CAD and in Israel to Israeli Shekels. This process helps avoid potential fluctuations in the market and stabilize the value of the crypto currency. It ensure that the charity receive the maximum financial value intended by the donor at the time of the gift. It also allows the donor to put the funds to use immediately.

To sign up or to learn more about the matching donation program or crypto donations visit www.charity.exchange

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What is a Donor Advised Fund?

Admin — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 20:30:28 +0000

What is a Donor Advised Fund?

Many donors and individuals are turning to donor-advised funds (DAFs) to assist with their charitable efforts. There has been an explosion in the use of DAFs, which are funds set up for charitable purposes that can facilitate large donations.

Donor-advised funds are registered charitable foundations that are funded with cash, securities, or other assets. All the contributions are put into an account in the donor’s name, which is held by a DAF sponsor and eventually donated to a charity of the donor’s choosing.

Donors can take a current tax deduction for contributions made to the fund. This is an important feature because it allows a donor to take a tax deduction for all contributions at the time they are made, even though the money may not be dispersed to a charity until much later. This incentivizes donors who need a tax deduction to donate now and then decide where the money will go at a later time when it’s convenient.

DAF’s are very well-equipped to convert appreciated securities or other tangible assets into cash.

The ability to do this can enable many folks to give a larger amount than they would otherwise. For example, a donor with 10,000 shares of Google with a very low-cost basis can hand this over to a DAF and take an immediate deduction for the full value of the donation (subject tax law limitations).

If they wanted to do the same for a local woman’s shelter, they would have to sell the stock and pay the capital gains tax on the sale.

Donor-advised funds can provide donors with an immediate tax deduction for funds that may not actually be distributed to a charity until months or years later.

Charity Exchange is a charitable foundation that operates as donor advised fund. To learn more visit our DAF FAQ page.

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Global Donation Matching 101

Admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 17:30:04 +0000

How does global donation matching work?

In short, a donor’s gift is matched with another donor’s gift either a private donor, a business, corporation or a charity to double the donation amount. However, global donation gift matching can take on different forms depending on who is offering the program.

Business and corporations
When a business or corporation offers a donation matching program the business is seeking to encourage philanthropy and increase charitable spirit amongst their staff and employees. It also helps charities maximize the charitable income in a creative way. https://doublethedonation.com/ explains how the global donation matching program works with corporations.

Private Donors
Charities create matching donation campaign in partnership with private donors. The goal of the charity is to effectively double the impact of an individual gift. It allows both the donor and others to support the charity. The donor commits to a specific donation amount that is matched by other community donors. The benefits to the charity and donor is an increase in donation revenue and the expansion of their donor base. https://www.charidy.com/ is an online platform that helps charities and donors create matching campaigns.

Charitable foundations and non-for-profit
Charitable foundation looking to help charities offer charitable grants in order to match donations dollar-for-dollar for the duration of a fundraising campaign.

Donor Advised Funds
Charity Exchange offers a unique donation matching program for global donors. Many donors, when donating to a global charity, cannot benefit from a tax deduction if the charity is not located in their home country. Charity Exchange helps donors create a global charitable matching gift that can offer a local tax deduction for their donation. The program matches 2 donors in different countries. Each donor makes a charitable donation to a charity in their home country. The charity in their home country is chosen by the donor in the other country. To learn more about charity Exchanges matching donation program click here.

Read about other donation matching programs in this article by https://recharity.ca/matching-gifts-guide/

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US-Canada Income Tax Treaty for Charity

Admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 18:16:52 +0000

In 1980 the U.S. and Canada have entered into a mutual agreement. The agreement was named The US-Canada Income Tax convention.

Under the terms of the United States-Canada Income Tax Treaty agreement, recognized religious, scientific, literary, educational, or charitable organizations that are organized under the laws of either the U.S. or Canada will automatically receive recognition of exemption without application in the other country.

U.S. organizations must be recognized as exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Code in order to qualify for this treatment. Similarly, Revenue Canada must recognize Canadian organizations as Canadian registered charities. Recognized charitable organizations resident in one country will be eligible to receive deductible charitable contributions from residents of the other country.

The treaty provides limited tax benefit to individuals residing in one country with income in the other country.

To read the full treaty click on the link to the Canadian Government website and here for the US Government website

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Donating to American or Canadian Charities

Admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 15:38:50 +0000

Americans looking to donate to Canadian charities or Canadians looking to donate to American charities (Part 2)

In part one we discussed the advantages and the disadvantages of donating directly to charities in other countries. In part two we will discuss the option of donating to international charities through a local charity in your home country.

There are some charities and foundation that are setup to support international charitable activities abroad. Some of these charities and or foundations include World Vision, Against Malaria Foundation, Doctors Without Borders and many others.

Supporting international causes through these charities can offer the full tax advantage. In addition, many of these charities are running these charitable activities abroad or are intimately involve in those international charitable programs. However, most of these charities are only setup to support specific international charities or causes that they operate or choose to fund. This limits the donor’s ability to support a specific charity that may not have relations with these local charities and or foundations.

Charity Exchange’s donation matching program can help donors with its unique donation program for cross border charity. Visit the Charity Exchange page to see how matching donations work.

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Cross Border and International Donations

Admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 20:27:25 +0000

How can Americans looking to donate to Canadian charities or Canadians looking to donate to American charities donate?(Part 1)

What is the best way for Americans looking to donate to Canadian charities or Canadians looking to donate to American charities? There are several ways to go about cross border donations. Over the coming weeks we will explore some of the options and the possible advantages and or disadvantages. In this post we will explore the most common way to donate to a charity across the border.

The most common way to donate to a charity in another country is by sending the donation directly to the designated charity on the other side of the border. For example, an American resident sends a donation to a Vancouver homeless shelter. The donor can send it by cheque, wire transfer, or credit card if the charity accepts credit cards. The advantage of this donation method is the charity receives the donation directly into their account from the donor without any intermediaries.

However, there are some disadvantages. First, the donor would need to convert the US dollar funds into CAD dollars. If the donor does not have a special FX rate with their bank or credit card the donor may pay 3-4% above the market currency exchange rate. Second, if the donors is sending a wire, there may be a significant wire fee and if the donor is paying with a credit card the charity pays up to 4% credit card processing fee. Third, although the donor may receive a Canadian tax receipt, the US donor can not use the tax receipt for a US tax deduction. (Unless the donor also files a Canadian tax return and claim the tax deduction on their Canadian earnings, in which the IRS may allow for a limited deduction in some circumstances.) As the IRS would only accept a tax receipt from US charity, not a foreign or international charity. The same apply to Canadians donating to a US charity.

Charity Exchange can help donors with its unique donation matching program for cross border donations. Visit Charity Exchange FAQ page to see how matching donation work.

Click here to read part 2 Donating to American Charities

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