IRA "Roll Over" Keeps On Rolling

UPDATE: Congress has suspended mandatory IRA withdrawals for 2009

Thanks to a deadline extension added to the recently enacted Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, if you are 70½ or older you now have the opportunity until the end of 2009 to use your IRA funds to make charitable gifts without the amount of the gift counting as a taxable distribution.

To qualify:

• You must be 70½ or older
• You must transfer your funds directly from your IRA accounts to the charity
• Qualifying gifts are limited to $100,000 per year
• You must make an outright gift (life-income gifts such as charitable gift annuities or remainder trusts do not qualify)
• Gifts do not generate a federal income-tax deduction

Pointer: These charitable IRA transfers do not count toward the federal limits on deductible charitable contributions. This makes such transfers particularly attractive if you have made other gifts during the year equal to or in excess of the deductible limits or if you have large unused deductions from previous years carried forward to this year.

Note: Despite the suspension for 2009 of the mandatory withdrawal requirements from qualified retirement plans and IRAs for those who are 70½ years old and older, making a gift by a direct transfer from an IRA still allows a wonderful giving opportunity for those wanting to make a gift of this type of asset.

In addition, in most states charitable IRA transfers are not subject to state income tax. This makes a charitable transfer from your IRA especially favorable if you live in a state that does not allow deductions for charitable contributions and does not tax direct transfers to charity. (You save the amount of state tax you would have paid on the distribution.)

If you are eligible to benefit from this opportunity, do not delay. We would welcome the chance to assist you in planning an IRA gift.

Please contact us for our assistance with your gift plans.

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