Charitable Giving Information

Archive for March, 2009

Tax Planning And Tax Avoidance

Question: Can I have my corporation give me a bonus enough so that to claim maximum small business deduction?

Is this considered as a tax planning or tax avoidance?

Answer: Yes, you can. That is considered tax planning, because claiming bonus by a corporation is provided for in the canadian income tax act.

Tax avoidance only results when certain course of action taken to circumvent specific section of the tax act, or abuse the object and spirt of the act read as a whole. I dont think claiming a bonus is an abusive action.

Benefits of contracting using an umbrella payroll solution

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Charitable Giving Estate Planning

In some cultures, speaking about death is a no-no and therefore, estate planning is a sensitive subject. However, if you think for a second and consider the decision, it doesn’t take a genius to realize estate planning is a smart, even a necessary part of responsible finance management.

The Unplanned Estate

If a person dies intestate, that is, without a will, his estate – the sum total of his assets and liabilities – will be disposed of by operation of law. A court would appoint an administrator to oversee the disposition of properties. In any case, the estate will be inherited by person whom the law thinks is the rightful heir and these may not be how you would have wanted it to be. Moreover, it is likely that your family will have a huge squabble over who gets what. This could lead to complicated lawsuits that are both expensive and bitter.

Benefits of Estate Planning

For the sake everyone’s peace of mind, including yours and Uncle Sam’s, it is wise to plan your estate and do it well. An experience legal and financial advisor that help you with estate planning so that you can reap the following benefits for yourself:

1. Conservation of Assets. Estates are taxed heavily. Regardless of which countries you’re concerned with, properties left by deceased are taxed heavily before heirs can get to them. However, there are legal ways to conserve the value of assets. Trusts, wills and charitable donations can be used for this purpose.

2. Provision for Care. Whether for yourself as you advance in years or for surviving and future family members, there are ways to ensure that your and your family’s care needs are secured, regardless of who runs your businesses or manages your properties.

3. Ensuring business continuity. Especially if the deceased owns a controlling interest in any business, estate planning becomes imperative so as not to adversely affect operations in the even of change of ownerships.

Living Wills and Trusts

Besides all those planning for when you finally pass on, planning your life while you’re living is also important. If you’ve worked long and hard to create and grow your wealth, you’d like to enjoy it and do so hassle-free. Maintaining your lifestyle entails a lot – paying bills and obligations, writing checks to charities, settling charges, etc. You probably wouldn’t have time for all of that, in addition to making sure the people who depend on you are taken care of. An easy to do this is via a living will and trust.

A trust is a separate legal entity you can establish to protect some properties and assets from probate, public scrutiny or taxes. You can establish trusts either while you are living or upon your death. Depending on the type of trust you establish, you’ll have full or limited control over the properties placed in trust. Wills, as you know, are legal documents you create to name who takes over your properties and responsibilities at the time of your death.

About the Author:

Scheirer Wealth Management is the leading Orlando Financial Planning and private wealth management company. They have the reputation as Orlando’s favorite retirement planning agency.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – How to Secure A Living Will To Ensure Estate Planning

Estate Planning for Charitable Donations

Charitable Giving Deduction

Question: Should the US make laws to allow you to claim your time and effort as Charitable donation to your own family?

If I take care of my daughter, giving her my time and effort to do so when she cannot do it for herself, should I receive a charitable deduction on my income tax?
Kathryn, what about the elderly?
Kathryn, what about friends?
Include non family too and you would be able to deduct for disabled care onlly.
If the government pays anyone to come in and care for your child for you, then they are subsidizing that action. Question is, should they be subsidizing your care, which is more personal, or some outsider’s care?
This would be a tax deduction, not a huge refund!

Answer: No you will not. But if your daughter is under 13 or disabled, then you can get credit for expenses you paid to take care of her. But if you did not pay any one, but did yourself then you will not get any credit.

Tax Deduction Tips & Advice : How to Take Tax Deductions for Charitable Giving

Charitable Giving By Nation

Question: How can we make sure that our charity donations rightfully reach their proper and intended destination?

Whenever a major catastrophe occurs (i.e. civil war, deadly typhoons / hurricanes / landslides, horrendous earthquakes), the world was always ready to lend at least some sort of helping hand. We give whatever we must to aid those in need. Though raising a fair amount of donations are no easy task — it is certainly an achievable feat.

However, sometimes the governing body of a nation are influenced by greed, especially for the third world countries. Though not as bad as other nations, my homecountry, the Philippines, has got its share of dubious characters within the government. They take most, if not all, of those hard-earned charitable donations for themselves instead of doing their rightful duty as the leader of their country. As a result, little or almost none are received by those who truly need it.

How can we make sure, as responsible citizens, that our hard-earned charity donations rightfully reach their proper and intended destination?

Answer: There are charity-rating groups that publish how different charities spend their money (solicitation, overhead, etc.). Most good ones will spend about 90% of their donations on the actual mission of the charity.

This one is my favorite sites: http://www.charitynavigator.org/

Rep. Blackburn Questions Al Gore on Charitable Giving

Charitable Giving To Churches

Time to find some college money through all those scholarship programs you hear about. Here are 3 quick tips to speed up your search for tuition and book money. I’ll get right into the tips.

1. Find More Scholarship Programs
You need money, and foundations and memorial funds have it. You can apply for Walmart Scholarship programs, the Burger King Scholarship, Pepsi, Coca Cola, and on and on. Even Kohls has an award.

The point: you need to find as many as possible. Start with a scholarship program handbook at your local bookstore. But look at these other locations to find more scholarships:

- Your high school guidance office
- Your college financial aid office
- Good online scholarship search engines, and not just Fastweb.com.
- Local colleges, and community colleges
- Large and well known employers in your area
- Charitable organizations and churches in your town
- Business groups like the chamber of commerce
- National versions of all of the above

2. Improve Your Scholarship Essays
In other words, write great essays. You will have to write a couple of essays to get a scholarship, and you can reuse your essays. But here lies the problem. If you reuse a lousy essay, you are hurting yourself.

You have to write to get a scholarship, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Start by reading a few examples – you can find them online or in scholarship program guide books. Then, write your own. Use good grammar, and make sure the essay flows.

Most important in this step: have others read it. If you can get a teacher to read it, all the better, but get more than one opinion on your essay. Then, write another and have them read that one. Don’t throw any out, you may need parts or all of them later.

If you do several, you will start writing better. Your words will come more naturally. You want to sound genuine. Your audience, the people who award the scholarship, will see you through your writing. You want your essay clear and understandable. And once you write a few, you’ll feel better about your writing and find more to say and talk about.

Now you get to the good part. After writing a few and improving, you also can choose what to include. You won’t have to write each one from scratch, you can use the others you have written to provide you with more material. At this point, writing your essays will come much easier. But you need practice to get there, and you need people to proofread them to help you refine your writing.

3. Start Applying for Scholarships
Now you start applying for all the programs you found in the first step. You have some great essays prepared, and you have several programs to apply to. Get those applications finished, have a friend or teacher proofread it, and send it in, on time or early.

Many people skip applying for scholarships altogether. You may be in this boat. You might think you don’t have good enough grades, or you don’t have enough talent to compete. Let me tell you, you need to apply anyway. Only applicants can receive an award, and you can apply. It only costs a few minutes or a couple of hours to fill out the forms. Do it. Send them in. And then, do it again with another.

Many scholarships do not rely on grades or talent. You can win just by being one of a small group that applies and looks reasonably qualified based on who you are, what you study, or where you live or study. Also, numerous scholarship programs every year do not award all their money – millions go unapplied for or unawarded. You can get some of this huge pool of money.

Take the initiative. Apply.

About the Author:

Need more tips on scholarship programs? Come to my scholarship information page and download my free grant program ebook here

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Scholarship Programs: 3 Steps To Winning More Awards

Increase Church Giving Offerings Budgets – Seminars in 16 Cities by ECFA – Brian Kluth