As we enter the gift-giving season, we hope that you will think about your gift to AAFSW, which provides so many services to you and the Foreign Service Community. Here are just a couple of ways you can help with your financial gift.
We always need your immediate gift of cash. It goes a long way in helping us provide and maintain the programs that are so valuable to our community, such as resource information sharing, advocacy, networking, programs, scholarships and awards, and a sense of community. Your mailed checks or donations via our website help ensure that we can continue giving you the help, advice, and tools you need to navigate life as a member of the Foreign Service community.
There is another easy way to make your year-end gift before December 31st, although it comes with some very strict eligibility requirements. For those who are eligible, a gift of your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) from your IRA simply takes a call to your investment advisor. RMD’s are taxable, but a Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCD) from an IRA eliminates that tax burden on you. There is no further tax deduction allowance for this contribution. QCDs are permanent! This means that your RMD can now be taken at any time during the year, and you can designate it as a charitable gift to a public charitable organization such as AAFSW.
HERE ARE THE RULES:
You must be at least 70½ years of age (you must be this age at the time of distribution, not just sometime during the tax year.)
The individual maximum amount of a QCD donation from your IRA is limited to $100,000 or $200,000 (per married couple if both have IRAs)
Only the Required Minimum Distributions from individual IRAs (including a rollover) are eligible (no SEP or SIMPLE IRA’s if they are still actively receiving employer contributions) or any type of retirement plan and must be made by December 31 of the tax year.
The distribution must go directly to the charitable organization – made payable to that organization – not to the individual owner of the IRA (although the check, made payable to the charitable organization, can be sent to the IRA owner for forwarding). If the RMD is made payable to the IRA owner, there is no undoing it, which means that you will pay the tax on the RMD, but you can then send a contribution to the charitable organization and take a charitable tax deduction.
Call your IRA custodian today and ask for a form for distribution and request that the RMD check be made payable directly to AAFSW as a Qualified Charitable Distribution. It’s easy and painless, but please let us know if you make this request, as often the checks arrive without the name of the IRA owner. Your financial support is needed, appreciated, and used well to provide you with the activities and programs that best serve you.