Stock contributions to pledges

[SteveFaulkner]

Several church members have contributed stock donations toward their pledge to our building fund. For tax purposes, we just send them a donation letter indicating the number of shares and date of transfer, so we don't normally enter these into the Contributions module. But for pledge tracking, we want to track the value of the stock donation toward their pledge. It seems like the only way to do this is to enter a value for the stock donation into Contributions, but this seems to foul up our end-of-year tax statement printing (since it would include the stock value entered into Contributions as a deductable cash gift).

Is there any way to handle this properly in PC+?

[foxygramps]

It is not advisable for churches to hold donated stocks. Sell them and record the net proceeds as a donation.

[NeilZ]

What we did at our last church. was to add the contribution to the system as off the day of the contribution, when it was turned over to the stock account at Merrill Lynch. After that day, anything that happens to the value of the stock is no longer creditable to the person who gave the stock.

This was done by having the Financial Secretary enter a normal contribution via the Contributions module for that one person, then immediately post that to Funds Accounting. The Treasurer, would then modify the transaction on the Funds Accounting end to apply the donation to the correct stock tracking account rather than the checking account. Eventually (depending on the advice of our broker) the stock is sold and the proceeds applied to the fund.

FWIW ... the stock value as of the day it was given IS a deductable gift.who gave the stock.

[SteveFaulkner]

We are not using the Fund Accounting module. We are only using PC+ Contributions module in order to print end-of-year tax statements for donors, and to print pledge balance statements.

Either I'm missing something or I see a tax statement issue that others are missing...

What I've been told about the tax rules is that when someone donates stock, I should give them a donation letter listing only the number of shares of what stock and date of transfer, but not list the value of the stock on that day or total value of any sort, and that the end-of-year tax statement should ONLY include CASH donations, not the donation of shares.

So if someone gives stock, I've normally just printed them a letter and not entered the cash value into Contributions at all. The treasurer handles the sale and accounting in seperate accounting software.

But now we are tracking pledges, and people are donating stock toward pledges. I set up a deductable fund in Contributions for the pledges. I want to apply the value of the stock toward the pledge, but I if what I've been told is correct, I need to exclude the stock value from the end-of-year tax statement. I don't see any way to do this. Is what I was told about the tax statement rules wrong?

[NeilZ]

All I can tell you is what the church treasurer, who is an accountant, and our Stewardship Elder, who is also a tax accountant, recommended be done at my old church.

As is usual with any sort of advice on taxes, check with your own accountant/auditor to be sure

[Zorak]

I need to exclude the stock value from the end-of-year tax statement. I don't see any way to do this.

The Contribution Statements ask for a range of Contribution Funds. Make sure your donated stocks fund number is assigned at the end of the range of fund numbers you want to report.

Example:

100-999 cash contributions
1000+ non-cash contributions

Then run the CO Statement for funds 1-999.