ER and Bioregionalism

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I’ve just posted a couple of items in the Fiscal Host’s Corner, including a revised mind map of ER and an introduction to today’s approach to bioregionalism. The mind map, developed from Penny’s earlier Miro sketch, is here:

It’s a bit of a puzzle as to where to post things on ER so that they’re seen but are not intrusive. So I’m trying an experiment to see if posting them in “the corner” might actually attract some folks to look around and tell me more about what they’d like to see, whether just out of curiosity or in the interest of transparency…

Are Charitable Donations Still Tax-Deductible? Yes, and Donating Crypto is a Good Idea

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Yes, but only if you itemize, and your itemizations are greater than the standard deductions:

The 2022 standard deduction applies to all taxpayers:

    • Single taxpayers and married individuals filing separately: $12,950
    • Married individuals filing jointly: $25,900

In order to deduct charitable contributions and other eligible expenses, you’ll need to itemize instead of taking the standard deduction on your federal taxes.(https://daffy.org/resources/charitable-tax-deductions-guide-2022)

If you do itemize, and claim more in deductible expenses than these amounts, then your charitable donations can also be deducted. What this is worth depends on your tax bracket.

Here are the tax brackets by filing status for the 2022 tax year.

In order to make a donation tax-deductible, you’ll need to itemize your deductions. That means all of your itemized deductions should be greater than the standard deduction. Here are some of the biggest itemized deductions that may apply:

    • Unreimbursed medical care expenses that exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income.
    • Mortgage interest (on up to $750,000 of debt).
    • A home equity loan or line of credit interest, but only if used for home improvements, buying, or building.
    • Personal property, state, and local taxes (up to $10,000 limit).

When planning your charitable contributions for 2022, first calculate your other potential itemized deductions. That gives you a starting point to see how much you would need to donate in order to make a difference in your taxes. Ultimately, the total would need to exceed the standard deduction amount for your filing status.

How much can you claim?

The IRS sets a limit on how much you’re allowed to claim as a charitable deduction. In 2021, the limit was increased to 100% of an individual’s annual gross income in order to incentivize charitable giving during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the 2022 charitable contribution rules have reverted back to no more than 50% of your AGI for cash contributions. The limit is 30% of AGI for non-cash contributions (for example, donating shares of stock). It’s still one of the most generous deductions available – a couple with an AGI of $200,000 can deduct up to $100,000 of cash donations to charity in a given year. But any charitable donations above those amounts are not eligible for a tax deduction.

How much can you claim in charitable donations without receipts?

It depends on what type of giving you give and how much.

    • Cash contributions: Any cash contributions under $250 don’t require a receipt from the organization. Any contribution of $250 and over does require some type of written communication from the organization confirming your donation.
    • Non-cash contributions: For non-cash contributions, the limit to make a deduction without a receipt is $500. Additionally, non-cash contributions also require an appraisal to determine the fair market value of the item you donated. If the value is $5,000 or less, you just need to hang onto the appraisal with your tax documents in case of an audit. But if the appraised value is more than $500,000, you must submit the qualified appraisal to the IRS with the rest of your tax return.

What’s the tax benefit of donating stock to charity?

Instead of selling off well-performing stocks and using the proceeds to donate to charity, you may find even greater tax benefits by directly donating the stock through a donor-advised fund. When you sell your stocks, you’ll automatically trigger a capital gains tax — even if you end up donating the profits.

…

How can I optimize my gains or losses on Bitcoin and Ethereum by donating them?

Buying cryptocurrency can feel like even more of a roller coaster than investing in the stock market. No matter how your crypto portfolio has performed recently, you can optimize your taxes by donating crypto in 2022.

Now that cryptocurrency is considered taxable personal property by the federal government, any realized gains are taxed as capital gains (either long-term or short-term, depending on your holding period). But that also means you can take advantage of IRS tax deductions for donations just as you would with stocks.

 

Meeting Notes from 3/3/2022

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(Posted at https://earth-regenerators.mn.co/events/er-fund-governance-weekly-call-a?instance_index=20220304T020000Z)

By way of follow-up to this evening’s Call A discussion (3/3/22), here are some quick notes from my perspective about the E-R Fund and related issues:

1. We started with a review of the outstanding requests — for Benji, Rachel, Diogo, and Alpha (for the current status see the meeting notes), and essentially agreed that we were generally in favor of addressing these requests, but could not do so until we know what’s in the ER Fund, and how it relates to the separate Barichara Fund. (It was suggested that Rachel’s request might be redirected to the Barichara Fund because she is currently onsite and the request relates to her work there.)

2. I raised the question of creating an ER Financial Picture, and identifying the questions we need to answer and the data we need to answer them.

3. In addition to setting up the accounts it might be helpful to do a Miro board picture of how the funds relate to each other as well as how they’re connected to the Patreon or GoFundMe accounts, and how these relate to (a) the multiple types of capital, or polycapitals, (b) the cryptocurrency funds and platforms, (c) Travis’ concept of Liquid Giving, (d) the Regen.Network relationship, (e) the Ecoversity, (f) the Right Livlihood Fund, and (g) the meta-conversation about fund structures and governance, and of doing economics differently.

4. Midi and JP discussed the use of Loomio, and will look to extend the invitation and quick review of the platform to those of us who are not on it.

5. It was suggested that there be a Donate button on the ER site — which brings up the question of which platform to use, whether and how to accept cryptocurrency donations, whether there are US donations looking for a tax receipt, etc. It was suggested that we consider Open Collective instead of Patreon.

6. There was discussion of using the blockchain to distribute funds, because of the costs and challenges of transferring funds internationally, though there may also be challenges in converting the crypto to local currencies where needed.

7. I suggested we look at the Common Good platform — see information here and here — as another way of exchanging funds.

8. We discussed the need to bring together a group involving Todd Youngblood, Travis Kriplean, Stan Curtis, Midi, Gail, Penny, and others with Joe to offload the responsibilities that he is currently dealing with to a system that can manage them more effectively.

9. Just to keep track of the many issues involving our Fiscal Sponsorship of ER, I’ve created a simple WordPress site perhaps mainly for my own use but ultimately open to all of the members who might be interested, and in order to provide greater access and transparency: http://e-r.possibleplanet.org/

10. For example, it’s unclear where this kind of update ought to be posted, e.g., here, under Call B, or in the Creating the Earth Regenerators Fund Course generally, or the Earth Regeneration Fund Group, etc.

What is Fiscal Sponsorship?

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A fiscal sponsor is a nonprofit organization that provides fiduciary oversight, financial management, and other administrative services to help build the capacity of charitable projects.

Using a fiscal sponsorship arrangement offers a way for a cause to attract donors even when it is not yet recognized as tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3). In essence the fiscal sponsor serves as the administrative “home” of the cause. Charitable contributions are given to the fiscal sponsor, which then grants them to support the cause.

(https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/tools-resources/fiscal-sponsorship-nonprofits)

There are several different types of fiscal sponsorship, and within each type several levels of support that are offered.

Possible Planet offers Earth Regenerators several services as part of our fiscal sponsorship arrangement. Other organizations offer other services, such as payroll, HR, project auditing, etc. We’re open to evolving our concepts of what fiscal sponsorship means for a growing volunteer-run network, with multiple and overall lapping subcommunities.

We’ll likely create a Topic, Group, or Course on E-R to encourage understanding and participation.