Give Through Your IRA

If you:

• Are 70-1/2 or older,
• Have an Individual Retirement Account (IRA), and
• Do not depend upon your annual required minimum distribution from your IRA for living expenses,

You may want to make a gift to OPAL of some or all of your required minimum distribution from your IRA.

Current tax laws allow people who are age 70-1/2 or older to make gifts totaling up to $100,000 annually ($200,000 for a married couple) from a traditional IRA account directly to qualified charities without being taxed on those monies. While you cannot claim a charitable deduction for your IRA gift, your gift to OPAL from your IRA counts toward your required minimum distribution for the account and does NOT trigger any income tax for you.

To make a tax-free gift from your IRA, you need to direct your IRA plan administrator to transfer assets directly to OPAL. Click here for a sample instruction letter to your IRA administrator.

While the IRA Charitable Rollover may not be the best tax-deduction mechanism for many donors, it may have benefits from an estate-planning perspective. Retirement accounts are frequently bequeathed to heirs but are among the most highly-taxed assets of an individual’s estate. In some cases, they may even be subject to income tax. Therefore, directing all or a portion of one’s required minimum distribution for charitable giving may be a better choice if a donor is concerned about avoiding estate taxes.

OPAL Community Land Trust does not offer tax or legal advice. Check with your professional tax advisor to make sure that any charitable giving strategy makes sense for you.