Foundations

[rogercote]

I was approached by an accountant/lawyer with an idea about having a personal charitable foundations, where I transfer assets into a foundation which then influences the net taxes paid to CRA because of deductions allowed. It is a tool like a family trust which protects the assets and saves on taxes.
Is there anyone out there that has a foundation and uses it for the charitable donations thus changing the tax bracket they would otherwise be in?

 

[Thomas Beyer]

QUOTE (rogercote @ Sep 28 2010, 04:34 PM) I was approached by an accountant/lawyer with an idea about having a personal charitable foundations, where I transfer assets into a foundation which then influences the net taxes paid to CRA because of deductions allowed. It is a tool like a family trust which protects the assets and saves on taxes.
Is there anyone out there that has a foundation and uses it for the charitable donations thus changing the tax bracket they would otherwise be in?
Due to cost of trust setup and annual fees, this makes sense ONLY if
a) you donate healthy amounts regularly, say $10,000/year or more
b) have significant assets where you actually pay tax on (those would be lowly levered properties as most properties with a 60%+ mortgage have no taxes payable due to CCA)

 

[rogercote]

QUOTE (rogercote @ Sep 28 2010, 05:34 PM) I was approached by an accountant/lawyer with an idea about having a personal charitable foundations, where I transfer assets into a foundation which then influences the net taxes paid to CRA because of deductions allowed. It is a tool like a family trust which protects the assets and saves on taxes.
Is there anyone out there that has a foundation and uses it for the charitable donations thus changing the tax bracket they would otherwise be in?

 

[bizaro86]

Are you currently making large $ gifts to existing charities? If not, I`m not sure I`d bother with this. Any asset you can donate to a charity you run, you can donate to an existing charity for exactly the same tax benefits.

PROS

You keep control of the money/asset and can put it towards whatever cause you want

CONS

You pay administration and other costs. If an existing charity does what you want, why not give them the money/asset directly, allowing more of the value to go towards actual charitable purposes.

Michael