A lot of people are worried about their required minimum distribution (RMD) taking them into another tax bracket, or pushing them to a point that they are going to have to itemize their taxes. Are you or someone you know in this situation: a parent or grandparent maybe? If you’re at least 70.5 years old, you now have the option of making a tax free distribution. You have the opportunity to distribute some savings from your IRA to a charitable organization available (http://apps.irs.gov/app/pub78). When you take your RMD and donate it to a charity you don’t have to report this money as income for the year. Another option is if you are supposed to take a $3000 RMD which may take you $1000 into your next tax bracket, and instead you could take $2000 towards your reportable income and the other $1000 given as a charitable distribution. This is an excellent opportunity for those who are interested in giving to charity. But you may want to act now, the government has designated these guidelines until December 31st, 2007 when they expire, so act quickly!Another option is to use the money from the RMD as a gift to a grandchild’s college education fund (529 plan). You’d still have to pay taxes on the RMD; however, the money can go to the grandkids income tax free. The money is no longer in the giver’s estate and the giver of the gift still controls the spending of the money in the future. The grandchild never becomes the “owner” of the funds.
· IRA owner must be age 701/2 or older
· Cannot exceed $100,000 per year per IRA owner
· Effective for distribution on or before December 31, 2007
· Have a check made payable to charitable organization
· IRA owner may hand carry the check to the charitable organization
· A qualified charitable distribution offsets an IRA owner’s required minimum distribution
· IRA owner addresses taxation on federal income tax return
*Contact the Central National Bank Trust Dept. for further information
*Info provided by Allison Gowing and Joe Karnes