Changes to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) rates and rules are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2024. For the first time AMT will apply to charitable donations from high-income individuals, which is worrying for charities and donors. Simply, targeting donations is poor tax policy that will produce unintended…
Tag: Malcolm Burrows
Total 105 Posts
Early in my charitable planning career my employer was offered a donation of islands on Georgian Bay. Surrounding the 100-year-old family cottage were sheds, cabins and boat houses. The donors had a vision: it would be a children’s camp. It was a stunning property. Valuable, despite the sagging, mouse-infested buildings. …
I get regular inquiries about donating funds from registered retirement income funds or RRIFs. The value of RRIFs has grown through careful saving and market gains, and these funds may represent surplus wealth. Some RRIF holders resent the requirement to take steadily increasing annual withdrawals from their RRIF. Add a…
Charitable endowments are having a challenging moment. Despite the historical success of this medieval European charitable fund structure, the accumulation of capital for public benefit has always faced controversy. Endowments, which focus on long-term public benefit, have a built-in tension between capital and annual spending. Does the capital exist…
Estate planning is an exercise in time travel. It is impossible to predict the future, especially when the time gap between planning and death is often decades. Fast forward 25 years, a charity may not exist when the estate is distributed. Charity law identified this problem and a solution to it over…
Charity regulators all have processes for members of the public to make complaints about the charities. These processes reveal as much about the regulator and the underlying laws as they do about charity malfeasance. Charities are generally good actors, but they do sometimes have lapses or get caught in internal,…
In November 2022, The Winnipeg Foundation, announced a $500 million estate donation from a 66-year-old businesswoman named Miriam Bergen. Ms Bergen is an exceptional example of a common but overlooked donor: the older person without kids. Ms Bergen’s estate is larger and more complicated than most. She owned a business that was…
John Quinn was a corporate lawyer and Wall Street titan. A bachelor known for his many lovers, Quinn was also America’s first great modern art collector and tireless public champion. He was a friend of literary and art legends like Picasso, WB Yeats, and Joseph Conrad. Quinn died in 1924 of cancer…
On Giving Tuesday last month, The Winnipeg Foundation announced a $500 million estate donation from a local donor, Miriam Bergen. The donation is of two companies. Appleton Holdings Ltd., which owns Edison Properties, which in turn holds 27 rental apartment and commercial buildings in Winnipeg. The donor’s wished that her…
A direct designation gift of RRIF or life insurance proceeds is an estate donation, but lawyers and executors have little or no role to play. Normal procedural and disclosure rules don’t apply. How do charities ensure they receive their intended gift? How does the estate receive its tax receipt? Direct…