Good news about taxes? Really? The recently passed American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (referred to as the "Fiscal Cliff Legislation") reinstated the IRA Rollover opportunity, which allows eligible individuals age 70½ and older to make a distribution of up to $100,000 from their Individual Retirement Accounts to qualified charities such as Fontana Chamber Arts without incurring federal income tax liability. The legislation extends this opportunity for 2012 and 2013, and is available through December 13, 2013.

And there's more good news! The recently passed tax law also allows rollover distributions made between December 1, 2012 and January 31, 2013 to count toward your 2012 minimum annual distribution. This means you may make a total of two gifts of up to $100,000 each - one for 2012 and one for 2013. Here's how it works:

To qualify:

 You must be age 70½ or older at the time of your gift.

 Your distribution must come from either a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA, and must be outright.

 Your distribution must be made directly from the IRA to Fontana Chamber Arts.

Benefits:

 You may give up to $100,000 annually

 Your gift is not included in your gross income for federal income tax purposes on your IRS Form 1040.

 Your gift counts toward your required annual distribution.

Restrictions:

 Distributions to donor-advised funds or life-income arrangements such as charitable remainder trusts and charitable gift annuities do not qualify.

 Funds withdrawn by you and then contributed do not qualify.

 Gifts from 401k, 403b and other plans do not qualify.

 An IRA rollover gift does not qualify for a charitable deduction.

How Do I Proceed?

To make a gift of your distribution, please contact your IRA account administrator to make arrangements. Be sure to let us know of your intentions, as some IRA administrators do not identify the donor on the check, or that it is an IRA rollover distribution subject to specific tax treatment. There are two ways you can make a gift and have it count for 2012:

1. Make an IRA transfer by January 31, 2013 and elect for it to count as a charitable gift for 2012. Contact your IRA account administrator, who will make the actual distribution to us;

or

2. If you took a distribution from your IRA in December 2012, you may send us a check by January 31, 2013 and elect on your tax return for the December 2012 distribution to count as an IRA Charitable Rollover.

If you wish to make an IRA Charitable Rollover gift for 2013, simply contact your IRA plan provider to make a distribution to us.

We are happy to answer your questions at any time. Call us at 269-382-7774 or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .