‘Tis the Season By Eden Haven

‘Tis the Season

By Eden Haven, Director of Finance

As we enter this year’s giving season, consider giving in ways that are beneficial for both you and Walloon Lake. While the WLAC can use your generous donation to further our mission, you can potentially save yourself tax dollars as well. A couple of ways you can do this are by:

• Making a qualified charitable distribution (QCD) from your IRA and/or • Donating appreciated stock to a donoradvised fund or qualified charity (us!)

To make a qualified charitable distribution, you must meet the following:

• Be 70 ½ years old or older and • Make a direct transfer from your IRA custodian to a qualified charity.

When utilizing qualified charitable distributions, you can donate a maximum of $100,000 per taxpayer annually. Another bonus is that QCDs count towards your annual required minimum distributions (RMD). So, what does all this mean? If you were to take a $150,000 distribution from your IRA and make qualified charitable distributions of $100,000 during 2022, you could potentially reduce your taxable retirement income by 67%. If your required minimum distribution for 2022 was $100,000, you could potentially meet that entire requirement through qualified charitable distributions.

Now let’s look at the potential benefits of donating appreciated stock. When donating appreciated stock, you are decreasing the amount of your taxable investment gains for the year thus potentially lowering the amount of capital gains tax you would pay. For example, if you had long-term capital gains of $50,000 during 2022 and you donated $25,000 of that appreciated stock directly to a donor advised fund or qualified charity, you could potentially decrease the amount of capital gains tax you owe by 50%.

A couple of things to note when donating appreciated stock:

• Transfer the appreciated stock directly to a donoradvised fund or qualified charity, do not sell it first. This will allow you to maximize not only your potential tax benefit but the amount the charity receives as well. • Annual limits due apply to how much of your adjusted gross income (AGI) can be donated via appreciated stock so make sure you speak with your financial advisor and/or accountant prior.

As you can see, these are just a couple of the many ways to donate that can provide benefits to both the donor and organization. Please keep in mind that everyone’s financial and tax situation are very different so talk to your financial advisor and accountant to take the best course of action for you. Also, like anything involving the tax code, there are always restrictions and exceptions that apply, so make sure to discuss these with your advisors as well. Happy giving!

Why I Give By Mitch Kaeser

Walloon is home to over 20 years of memories for me - 20 years of summer vacations, slip ‘n slides, corn hole tournaments, tubing, swimming, Petoskey stone hunting, boat rides and most of all family. Walloon has always been the meeting point for my family. It’s where we come to laugh, eat, play and enjoy the lake. Even in the winter, it’s our home for skiing and sledding down the bluff. Walloon is truly a magical place with some magical memories. I chose to become a Primary Guardian to preserve those memories and help conserve the very place we get to make them. It is imperative that we tend to the lake’s conservation so that my family and yours can continue building lifelong memories on Walloon! I can’t imagine a life without the pristine, clear waters of Walloon Lake.