Pledge Paid One Year But Credited Another

[ranchmom4]

Our church treasurer pays his pledge in one check given in November of a particular year. The check clears and he receives a tax credit for that year, for instance, 2008. He would like, for church budgeting and accounting purposes to count that money for 2009 i.e. he is currently showing up as a "late payer" because he actually paid his pledge for 2009 in the calendar year 2008. How can I make a change to make that money move from 2008 to 2009?

Thanks,

Lynda

[NeilZ]

Our church treasurer pays his pledge in one check given in November of a particular year. The check clears and he receives a tax credit for that year, for instance, 2008. He would like, for church budgeting and accounting purposes to count that money for 2009 i.e. he is currently showing up as a "late payer" because he actually paid his pledge for 2009 in the calendar year 2008. How can I make a change to make that money move from 2008 to 2009?

Thanks,

Lynda

The trouble is Lynda, that the IRS says he can only claim the deduction for the year in which the money is given.

That said, you can do what you want to do. Here is a quote I took from a reply made in 2005:

you actually have the option of applying a contribuition to a pledge outside of the date range of the pledge.

To do this, just go to Contributions -> View Posted Contributions. Pull up the person you're working on and find the particular contribution you want to apply. The filter can come in really handy for this. Then, select that contribution and click "Change Pledge" at the bottom. You'll see a listing of pledges to the fund for that contribution, and a checkbox that says "Do not apply this contribution to a pledge." Uncheck that, and select the appropriate pledge from the list. Of course, this will only work if the fund used on the contribution is the same as the one used on the pledge.

I hope this helps.

[ranchmom4]

Thanks Neil, that helps a lot. He isn't trying to claim a tax deduction in two different years, the money is claimed on his taxes only in the year he contributes it. The check is deposited into our savings account and then is held, for church finance purposes, until the start of the next year when it is deposited into checking and the money is used that year.

Thanks again.

Lynda