Year-End Gifts With Benefits

We often hear from friends of the ministry who need to make a distribution from their Individual Retirement Account (IRA), but aren't sure the best way to go about it. The good news is that Congress has made a law permanent that allows you to give from your IRA directly to charity. No matter your income level or whether you itemize your income taxes, if you are age 70 1⁄2 or older, making direct charitable gifts from your IRA to Wycliffe Bible Translators - or other charities - is nearly always the best way to give cash gifts.

We would like to share with you an example of how the IRA rollover positively impacts investors in Bible translation: Joyce has made generous annual gifts to her favorite charities, including Wycliffe Bible Translators. Now that she is 70 1⁄2, she must begin taking her required minimum distributions (RMD), which her CPA told her will be $25,000 for the current year. She doesn't need the income, because she has other investments that provide her with adequate cash flow.

So Joyce gifted the $25,000 from her IRA directly to Wycliffe. The gift qualified her RMD as non-taxable income, reduced her adjusted gross and taxable income by $25,000, and saved $10,000 in federal and state income taxes. Joyce was pleased that she could use this tax-wise method to make a significant gift to Bible translation.

Making your own IRA rollover gift is quite simple to do. First, contact your IRA plan administrator to learn their procedure. Second, contact us and we will provide you with a sample letter of instructions, appropriate legal language and whatever other assistance you may need. Then, the distribution from your IRA plan will be made payable directly to Wycliffe Bible Translators.

If you would like to learn more about advancing Bible translation through gifts from retirement assets, please contact the Wycliffe Foundation at 877-493-3600 or email [email protected]

Under federal rules your benefits may be different from this example. Please contact us for your specific benefits. The names and images shown here are representative of typical donors.