People tend to give to better known philanthropies such as the Salvation Army, Feed the Children, the United Way.  On a list of top-money raising charities there is Fidelity Charitable, which most people have never heard of.  Yet people have given an amazing amount of money to this charity.  Fidelity Charitable is a branch of a huge Boston based management firm and in 2012 raised more money than the American Cancer Society and the American Cross; $3.6 billion more to be exact.  This charity gives immediate tax deductions to donors, however unlike better-known charities the money sits in ‘holding tanks’.  Legally, there is no specific limit to how long the money can be kept there.

The fund is made up of 58,000 personal accounts, and other companies like Fidelity are Charles Schwab, Vanguard, and Goldman Sachs allow people to donate and collect the benefits and choose the charity they want to give to later.  They are called donor-advised funds and a recent estimate of money in these funds is at $45 billion. This is more money than the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation!  Make sure your money is going to a working charity so your money isn’t waiting in a fund.  Yes, eventually the money has to go to a charity, but there is no telling when.  Donor-advised funds have existed since 1930 and have been helpful to business owners with specifications such as, those who sell their business in December and face steep tax bills can quickly donate a large sum of money to get a tax deduction and not decide which charity they want to give to until a later time.

Many working charities were concerned with donor-advised funds:

No laws regarding donor-advised funds came into play until 2006, requiring them to disclose the amount of money their clients were contributing to donate each year.  Hopefully more laws will be put into place regarding a time limit for money to sit in the accounts.

The post Donating to Charities: Where is your money really going? appeared first on Checkbox Accounting.

Just log on to www.cpacorporation.com, go to the “Resources” tab and we’ll get you started. In 20 minutes you will be able to:

– find the hidden profit potential in your business

– take a test to ascertain your Professional Wellbeing score

– conduct a business health check and review

– develop a personal financial and business plan

– perform a marketing survey of your business clients and customers

– and more by simply clicking on a link

These programs will provide invaluable information and guidance you can put to use in your business immediately to –

– discover the ways to stop your business from leaking cash

– monitor and take steps to improve the 3 bottom lines of business performance

– leverage the 4 sure methods that contribute to revenue growth for your business

– systemize your business processes to run more efficiently and enhance your quality of life

If you have questions about our no cost, no obligation interactive programs or website content, or if you would just like to come in and talk with us about your business, your goals and the issues you are confronting, we would be glad to arrange a convenient time for a free consultation.  You can contact us.

Isn’t it worth 20 minutes of your time to find the hidden profits in your business?              

The post Hidden profits you may be missing discovered in 20 minutes. appeared first on Checkbox Accounting.

-It is important to have transparency in order to gain the trust of the public.

-The board should note the difference what public information must be shared and what confidential information that needs to be guarded.

-An easy way to meet the IRS public activity is to post the IRS form 990 on the internet.

-A website that is accurate, professional, and clear helps promote transparency to the public and a central place of the organization’s information.

LEGAL AND COMPLIANCE ISSUES
-The IRS Forms 990 and 990-T from the prior three years is required to be available to any person who asks to see them.

-IRS Form 1023 must be also a public document. This document will show the application for tax exemption for any charities.

-Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), if an organization is considered to be a covered entity, it must have rules for handling any documents that are confidential.

-Also, the IRS Form 990 questions about the process of making governing documents to be publically available.

The post Principle 7: Availability of Information to the Public appeared first on Checkbox Accounting.

Our goal was to try and eat at as many healthy restaurants as possible. (Laughable, I know!) However, being on the road, it is hard to find a good variety of places to eat and we quickly got tired of eating at Subway’s. So we set out to find something greasy to eat, and drinks with plenty of caffeine to keep awake.

Toll roads were another interesting pickle and I was surprised that there were so many! Our favorites were the ones that required exact change leaving us emptying clothes out of suitcases looking for some spare change in pockets. This was very stressful since we did not have that much change with us.  The first night in Missouri I asked the hotel clerk for a roll of quarters and to my amazement she had one in her cash register that I immediately purchased. She looked at us funny as I thanked her profusely. She just couldn’t seem to understand our challenge with being “toll” tally prepared.

One of the major highlights was the bike ride my son and I took around the Presque Isle State Park, a 3,200-acre sandy peninsula that arches into Lake Erie and is Pennsylvania’s only “seashore”.  The weather was ideal and the beaches on Lake Erie were fantastic. Being from California, I am used to going to the salt water beaches of the Pacific Ocean, however, this was the first time I had ever been to such a vast clear water beach of a Great Lake.  We took many pictures and enjoyed our time together in front of many beautiful landscapes.

All in all our entire trip was memorable, but we both agreed to fly next time!

The post Fred’s and His Son, Kyle: THE Cross Country Road Trip appeared first on Checkbox Accounting.