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Post by wwjdthrume on Jun 30, 2011 8:46:25 GMT -6
clarification abou the giving post....... about giving....... My point is ... look to see what you can do directly more so than through someone else because then you know where it is going... not in some pockets of people who are pretending. I have seen too many so called church leaders who live the life of Riley in a huge house, fancy cars, expensive trips, vacation homes saying it is for the church, etc. while pressuring its poor congregation to give give give. So many of the congregation just think he (usually) is just great and others give out of the guilt placed on them. YOU can decide where your money goes that can really help someone.  There are so many great legitimate charities that have open financial statements available. You can look at how they use their funds for the last year, 2 years, 10 years, etc... What percentage of the gifts they receive are used for fund raising? (Important - legitimate charities do need to spend money to raise money - but some charities use the bulk of the funds they receive to pay for fund raising). My favorite charity of course is World Vision who are active around the World, and try to keep the fund raising costs under 10%. They have open financial records and don't pay graft to any nation, ruler or tyrant. If the country wants their help, they have to agree to the open financial record keeping that they require. There are great Charities that touch our hearts and have financial statements available for the asking. We don't always have to reinvent the wheel. If a great charity already exists that does the work you want, why not partner with them in a specific donation manner? The need you see will be handled in the most economic manner. Building new infrastructures costs time and money. The largest charities working in Impoverished Nations understand this and do a lot of cooperative work for each other. If the job is truly to bring clean drinking water to people who need it, why not be as efficient and effective as possible with the limited funds even millionaires (and billionaires) have? I hope to have these kinds of decisions in my future. God Bless us everyone!! IMO-Debi |
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Post by Twist Capper on Jun 30, 2011 9:28:43 GMT -6
Great points Debbie ..... especially about a charity's "transparency".
I've thought quite a bit about this and was thinking if/when - I'd
set up a trust that would perpetuate yearly donations based on
the interest earned. You could set it up so that it could terminate
upon your death and be distributed to your charities or to your
heirs.
I believe it would be considered a "Charitable Lead Unitrust".
This is from Wikipedia - so it's a FWIW until proven applicable to
your state:
Charitable remainder / Lead trusts
Trusts are often created as a way to contribute to a charity and
retain certain benefits for oneself or another family member. A
common technique is to create a charitable remainder unitrust
("CRUT"). Typically, this irrevocable trusts are funded with assets
which often are highly appreciated, meaning their cost basis for
capital gains tax purposes is very low relative to their current fair
market value. This can be real estate, highly appreciated stock or
a business interest with a low (or zero) tax basis.
Once the trust is funded, typically the asset is sold and invested in
a more diversified investment portfolio that can provide income or
liquid securities to provide an "annuity" to one or two individual
persons, based on a set percentage provided for under the trust
instrument and under IRS regulations. The annuity can be set for a
certain term of years or can last for the lifetime of individual
beneficiary(ies). Then, after the annuity term expires, the principal
of the trust goes outright to a charity or charities the grantor
named in the trust document.
If the trust meets the requirements of the IRS regulations, the
grantor of the trust will receive a charitable income tax deduction
for the calculated future value of the gift. Moreover, when he
transfers the property into the CRUT irrevocably, the value of that
property is out of his estate for estate tax purposes as well, even
if he himself receive the individual annuity interest in the trust. In
many cases, when properly structured, the CRUT can provide
enough tax benefits to beneficiaries through the use of the annuity
interest to justify the "giving away" of the asset to charity.
However, this "giving away" of assets often causes many to forgo
this technique, preferring to leave the assets directly to children
regardless of the potential tax consequences it may create.
Benefits:
1) You will qualify for a federal gift tax deduction.
2) Your charities will receive annual payments from your trust for a
term of years, or for another term you designate.
3) The beneficiaries of your trust (for example, family members) will
receive all of the trust's assets when the trust terminates. Any
asset growth that occurs within the trust will be distributed to your
trust's beneficiaries free of gift or estate tax.
Another way would be to organize a private foundation - separate
from your personal assets.
TC
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Post by skibuff on Jun 30, 2011 19:27:50 GMT -6
I thought Al already stated that the dinar was waiting on us not the other way around!
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