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  • 1.  Tax Receipts

    Posted 02-03-2025 10:50 AM

    Hi all,

    Question, when you send out year-end tax receipts do you address the letter to only the hard credit donor or do you combine giving for a household?

    Thank you!

    Tammy

     

    Tammy M. Cline

    Assistant Director, Gift Policy, Processing & Reporting

    West Point Association of Graduates

    698 Mills Road West Point, NY 10996

    Phone: 845.446.1540

    Fax: 845.377.3039

    WestPointAOG.org

     

    Serving West Point and the Long Gray Line

     

    CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this email message and any attachments is confidential and the property of West Point Association of Graduates (WPAOG). This message is intended for viewing and use by the original recipients only. Any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication and/or its attachments is prohibited without the sender's written permission. WPAOG does not accept liability for changes to this message after it was sent or privacy violations caused by forwarding to additional parties. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender and delete this email from your computer. For additional information please refer to the privacy statement available at WestPointAOG.org.

     



  • 2.  RE: Tax Receipts

    Posted 02-03-2025 11:12 AM
    I advise against year-end receipts (except for recurring gifts). However, for all receipts I prefer to address them to both partners, listing the legal donor first.

    John
    John H. Taylor
    919.816.5903 (Cell/Text)

    Big Ideas - Small Keyboard





  • 3.  RE: Tax Receipts

    Posted 02-03-2025 11:15 AM

    Thank you, John!

    Yes, I should have mentioned. We only send receipts to our recurring gift donors.

     

    Tammy M. Cline

    Assistant Director, Gift Policy, Processing & Reporting

    West Point Association of Graduates

    698 Mills Road West Point, NY 10996

    Phone: 845.446.1540

    Fax: 845.377.3039

    WestPointAOG.org

     

    Serving West Point and the Long Gray Line

     

    CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this email message and any attachments is confidential and the property of West Point Association of Graduates (WPAOG). This message is intended for viewing and use by the original recipients only. Any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication and/or its attachments is prohibited without the sender's written permission. WPAOG does not accept liability for changes to this message after it was sent or privacy violations caused by forwarding to additional parties. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender and delete this email from your computer. For additional information please refer to the privacy statement available at WestPointAOG.org.

     






  • 4.  RE: Tax Receipts

    Posted 02-14-2025 10:28 AM

    Can you expand on this or send me a link where you have? I just entered into a new role and the Athletics development office only sends one year end tax summary to all donors. Is there any IRS guidance against this?

    Thanks!



    ------------------------------
    Arielle Johnson
    Georgia Institute of Technology
    arielle.johnson@dev.gatech.edu
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Tax Receipts

    Posted 02-14-2025 10:47 AM
    IRS Publication 1771 is your reference on this. And no, there is nothing that says you cannot send out a single year-end receipt - as long as it arrives in time for the donor to do their taxes.

    But you do NOT, then, want to send out individual receipts during the year. Certainly you want to send a thank you letter. But also sending a receipt is a waste of time and money if you plan to send a tax receipt in January for all gifts.

    John

    John H. Taylor, Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier Street
    Durham, NC     27705

    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987







  • 6.  RE: Tax Receipts

    Posted 02-14-2025 10:51 AM
    Got it. Any indication on best practice? This is the first time I've ever heard of this... 


    Arielle Johnson
    Director of Gift Administration | Donor Experiences and Operations
    Georgia Institute of Technology
    Cell (614) 312-8273
    arielle.johnson@dev.gatech.edu | development.gatech.edu | gatech.edu






  • 7.  RE: Tax Receipts

    Posted 02-14-2025 11:58 AM
    There is a Best Practice in the aasp Knowledge Base. However, it states that it is customary to mail a receipt within 48 hours of the gift - as that document is typically the first notice a donor will receive confirming their gift.

    But, for recurring gifts donors should be told initially that they will only receive a receipt at the end of the year for THOSE gifts. Not all others.

    John

    John H. Taylor
    919.816.5903 (Cell/Text)

    Big Ideas - Small Keyboard





  • 8.  RE: Tax Receipts

    Posted 02-14-2025 12:45 PM
    In the past, it was generally verboten to issue two receipts for the same contribution, as it was seen as enabling tax fraud. But this approach came from days of yore, when getting something "on company letterhead" was a means of establishing authenticity, when an "original document" still meant something, and when reproduction of documents was more involved.

    Today, these issues look quite different. It is trivial for donors to generate authentic-seeming copies of charitable donations if they want to commit fraud. And as far as I am aware, there is no prohibition on providing more than one copy of a tax receipt. My advice is to be kind to donors: issue a receipt within 48 hours of a recurring donation, and provide a year-end donation summary. 


    Thank you,
    Isaac Shalev
    Data Strategy Expert
    Sage70, Inc.
    (917) 859-0151
    isaac@sage70.com

    Schedule a 30-minute consultation now:







  • 9.  RE: Tax Receipts

    Posted 02-14-2025 01:19 PM
    This one Isaac and I disagree on.

    But not for the same reasons.

    I am not concerned about the "duplicate" receipt - although the year-end summary should reflect that. And I always want to "be kind" to our donors.

    However, doing both adds another administrative cost to an organization. Further, getting the year-end receipt can be a huge pain. How do you handle quid pro quos? How do you reflect GIKs that do not reflect values? You have to remind donors that these reflect legal gifts - no DAFs or private foundations (which often causes the donor to ask you for a listing of those).

    And what do you do if the marital status of a donor changes in the middle of the year?

    Organizations spend dozens of hours trying to get these year-end receipts right. I certainly will prepare one upon request - but not automatically (other than for recurring donations).

    John

    John H. Taylor, Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier Street
    Durham, NC     27705

    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987







  • 10.  RE: Tax Receipts

    Posted 02-14-2025 02:46 PM
    For me this is a case of not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. I know as a donor I greatly appreciate receiving the year-end summary. 

    Isaac Shalev
    Data Strategy Expert
    (917) 859-0151
    isaac@sage70.com

    Autocorrect was used in composting this email, please excuse any typos