On January 1, 2013, Congress passed the "American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012."  This legislation includes an extension to tax years 2012 (partial) and 2013 of the IRA Charitable Rollover that terminated on December 31, 2011.  The IRA Charitable Rollover allows taxpayers to make current outright gifts of retirement assets.  The extended law provides that through December 31, 2013, an owner of a Traditional IRA, who is age 70½ or older, may instruct their IRA Plan Administrator to distribute directly to a public charity, such as the United Church of Christ, up to and including $100,000 without the distribution being included in taxable income, and that the distribution will count toward the IRA owner’s Required Minimum Distribution.

The primary benefits of the direct IRA Rollover to a qualified charity (such as local congregations, conferences, national ministries, and related institutions of the UCC are:

• While the donor does not receive a charitable deduction, neither is the transfer to charity treated as an income distribution to the donor; thus the donor enjoys the equivalent of a charitable deduction by avoiding the tax that ordinarily would have been due on an IRA income distribution, a benefit to itemizers and non-itemizers alike.

• The gift will not be subject to deduction limitations of phase-outs for donors in higher income brackets or who otherwise have exceeded their charitable deductions for the year.

The IRA Rollover legislation is limited to direct outright gifts to charities and cannot be used to fund life interest gifts such as charitable gift annuities, pooled income funds or charitable remainder trusts.

Distributions to donor advised funds and supporting organizations are not eligible.  Employer-sponsored plans, such as a Simple IRA, 401(k), or 403(b) are not qualified distribution sources.  Also note that IRA Rollovers may be includable in a donor’s income for state and local tax purposes and may not earn an offsetting charitable deduction, depending on state and local law.  Consult your attorney, accountant, or financial advisor.

For questions or information about how you might make a gift to your local church, the national church, or other setting of the United Church of Christ, please contact:

Financial Development Ministry Team
United Church of Christ
700 Prospect Ave E - Cleveland, OH 44115

Toll-free phone number is (800) 846-6822.
E-mail address is giving@ucc.org