Tax season is coming to a close next week, and unless you’ve been procrastinating, chances are you’ve already filed your 2014 tax return. If it won’t raise up too many painful memories, take a moment to think about your experience this year. How would you describe it? Traumatic? Monotonous? Taxing? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
While the actual act of filing isn’t too scary, there’s a lot of preparation that goes into completing a return, especially if you’re planning to deduct your charitable gifts. The IRS requires records for all your charitable contributions, and if you’ve done a lot of charitable giving over the past year, tracking down all those gifts you’ve made can be a lot of work.
So how can you make tax time less taxing? Consider establishing a donor advised fund within the Community Foundation of Orange and Sullivan. Donor advised funds allow individuals to arrange all their giving in one place. Think of it is a charitable savings account, but without the bother of actually writing and mailing checks. You make charitable contributions to the fund, and then decide which charities you want to support on your schedule.
Since the Community Foundation of Orange and Sullivan is a 501(c)(3) public charity, contributions to funds are tax deductible. That means if you do all of your charitable giving through the fund, you’ll only have to list donations you’ve made to the fund on your return.
Contact us to set up your own donor advised fund today. Don’t worry: it won’t be as stressful as doing your taxes!
