ELEM donor, Howard Gluckman, shared the benefits of donating to ELEM through an IRA.
“I am semi-retired now. I was a partner in a New York/New Jersey Certified Public Accounting firm affiliated with a large Israeli CPA firm. My area of expertise was auditing and taxation for large Israeli companies and their employees operating in the United States.
ELEM reaches a population of distressed youth for which, unfortunately, Israel has a significant need. ELEM is unique in this realm and has had measurable success where others have failed. I have recently donated to ELEM from my IRA account.”
“There are advantages to contributing to ELEM from your individual retirement account (IRA) account. When you turn 70.5, you become eligible to donate up to $100,000 annually from your IRA to a charity like ELEM through a process called a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD).
In addition, anyone with an IRA who is over the age of 73, is required to make taxable distributions from their account based on Internal Revenue Service tables (called required minimum distributions, or RMD). These distributions must be taken and are taxable. A way to avoid taxation on part or all of these distributions is to have some of the distribution go directly to a qualified charitable organization like ELEM (also via the same process through a QCD).
According to Howard, an additional reason he used a QCD was that “many retirees end up using the standard deduction that eliminates the benefit of their charitable contributions since they don’t have large mortgages and there are limitations on deductions for state income taxes.” Therefore, if someone is in a similar situation, he recommends everyone over the age of 70 and a half discuss with their tax advisor the benefits of donating using a QCD.”
To learn more about how to utilize this strategy for your giving to ELEM, contact our Chief Operating Officer, Liora Attias at [email protected].
**Nothing contained in this post constitutes investment, legal, tax or other advice by ELEM, ELEM USA, any staff from ELEM, or Howard Gluckman. The listed individuals are not investment, legal, or tax advisors. You should consider obtaining relevant and specific professional advice before making any financial or investment decision.**
