By: Roberta "Bobbi" Skipton,
Consultant to the Greene County Community Foundation

Bequests
This may be a good time to consider long-term tax savings, too. The federal estate tax can easily take a large percent of one's estate at the time of death. Taxes on Qualified Retirement Plan assets (IRA's) are even higher. It definitely pays to do some adequate estate planning with your legal or other professional advisors.

The Greene County Community Foundation (GREENE CCF) urges you to consider a charitable bequest in your will. GREENE CCF can be named as a beneficiary in a will in any one of a number of simple ways. In many cases donors can easily add charitable organizations to a will through a simple amendment called a codicil; thus the entire will does not have to be redrafted. Through a deferred fund, long-term charitable intent can be outlined during anyone's lifetime.

Gifts of Life Insurance
For individuals who own a life insurance policy that no longer is needed, it can serve as the perfect vehicle for a charitable gift.

If the policy has a cash value, donors can take a charitable deduction. In addition, if annual premiums are still to be made and the donor continues to pay them, those premiums will become tax deductible each year. (It's easy to contribute a life insurance policy...potential donors should check with their life insurance professional for details on which forms to complete.)

Life Income Gifts
With money market rates at low levels - and many stocks paying less than 2 percent in dividends - gifts of cash or stocks, made in the form of "life income gifts," can actually increase a donor's income.

Life income gifts allow donors to transfer assets immediately, receive a current tax deduction and receive incomes. Life income gifts can:

• Provide incomes for lifetime of the donors and/or others;

• Leverage a generous charitable contribution deduction; and,

• Significantly reduce or even eliminate capital gains tax on long-term appreciation.

Life income gifts offer a means to accomplish your charitable intentions and to do so in a tax advantaged way.

Gifts of Real Estate
For those who have owned a home, a vacation home, acreage or a farm for many years, making charitable gifts of that real estate can be especially tax advantageous.

A donor may wish to consider gifts of a personal residence or farm, reserving the right to live in the house for life (and if applicable, for the lives of their surviving spouse). Through such arrangements, the donor will be entitled to a current income tax deduction for the future value of the gift.