The IRA Charitable Donation in 2012

Today is the last day to make a charitable IRA rollover for 2012.  Yes, 2012 is over, but taxpayers who are required to make IRA minimum annual distributions may still have one 2012 transaction left in them.

Since today is Income Tax Day in the United States, the day to which all good American taxpayers aspire to hold out to before paying any more taxes than they have to, we thought we'd look at the charitable donation tax deduction to see if that might be something that makes sense for you. After all, what if you would have been better off having a garage sale last year, rather than donating all that stuff to charity?

A concerted effort is being made by institutions like the World Bank to quantify various types of transaction costs incurred by businesses (Doing Business, Enterprise Surveys). The rationale for focusing on transaction costs (and reducing them) is usually couched in mainstream economic concerns. That is, in an attempt to increase growth rate of GDP per capita, create jobs, reduce poverty, and so on.

Leonard Lauder, the billionaire heir to cosmetics giant Estée Lauder, just donated an unprecedented 78 Cubist paintings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

It is the biggest charitable donation to mining education in Canadian history. This morning, Queen's University's is unveiling a $10-million gift to its mining department from Robert (Bob) Buchan, a Queen's alumnus and the founder and former head of Kinross Gold Corp. Mr. Buchan, 62, spoke with the Financial Post's Peter Koven about the donation, how it will change the school, and how he is keeping busy as a chairman and mentor in retirement.

With so many changes looming for 2013, it's easy to forget that there were some significant tweaks to the Tax Code for 2012. Here's a list of eleven changes to keep in mind before you file your 2012 tax return, due April 15, 2013: Payroll tax credit will still affect self-employed taxpayers. The expiration of the payroll tax credit for 2013 was big news - but don’t forget that the credit was still in place for 2012.

Parents at Christian schools across the country could suddenly face bills for back taxes and a hike in school fees after the Canada Revenue Agency ruled that a charity-run program that helps students attend independent religious schools is “merely a tax scheme” designed to mask tuition payments as grants. The federal tax agency said in a letter this month donations to the Christian Economic Assistance Foundation made in 2009 and 2010 would be denied because they do not qualify as “gifts” under the Income Tax Act.