Now is the time to make sure you have a plan in place to protect your wealth with valuable and often overlooked tax deductions.
Start by estimating how much income you expect to bring in by the end of 2012. Knowing this information can help you decide how much you may want to give to favorite causes, resulting in reduced income taxes.
Following are a few innovative year-end giving ideas that can reduce your potential tax hit or even boost your income this year while also providing a tax break.
Immediate Tax Benefit
When you support Odyssey Dance Theatre, you not only make a difference in the lives of others, but you also receive a tax deduction. You can usually itemize and write off the amount you’re donating, resulting in lower taxable income. If you are unsure whether your gift is tax-deductible, you can always check with us.
Get Lifetime Income From Your Gift
Whether you’re still working or retired, you may decide after assessing your finances that you need more income. Consider setting up a life income gift to benefit Odyssey Dance Theatre. In exchange for your gift of cash or securities, or possibly real estate, you or a beneficiary you designate receive income for life. Plus, you get a partial charitable tax deduction the year you make the gift. Once the payment period ends—or you or your beneficiary passes on—the remaining value of your gift goes to us.
Use Tax-Smart Strategies to Make Gifts
Consider donating appreciated property instead of cash. If you give Odyssey Dance Theatre property you have owned for more than a year, the amount you can write off is the asset’s value on the day you make the gift. So if the property has increased in value while you’ve owned it, you won’t owe tax on its appreciation.
If the property’s value is now below your original purchase price, you could sell to take a capital loss to the extent allowed by law, thus reducing your taxable income. Then donate the cash to Odyssey. Both cases are win-win situations—you help us while smartly managing your taxes.
To find out in what ways you can complete your year-end gift, contact:
Annie VanAlstyne
801 860-6308
avanalstyne@odysseydance.com
