Tax Season Preparation for 2025

Explore Meaningful, Strategic Giving Options This Tax Season with CFSI

As tax season approaches, now is the ideal time to ensure your charitable giving is both meaningful and tax-efficient. The Community Foundation of Southern Indiana offers smart giving solutions that provide tax advantages while making a lasting impact in our community.

By planning your charitable giving with us, you can reduce your taxable income, support causes you care about, and create a legacy that lasts for generations.

Tax Benefits of Giving

A gift to the Community Foundation can provide several financial benefits:

💰 Tax Deductions: Contributions to your fund may qualify for an immediate charitable deduction.

📈 Avoid Capital Gains Tax: Donating appreciated assets, like stocks or real estate, can help you avoid paying capital gains tax while maximizing your giving.

🔄 Flexibility in Giving: Recommend grants to your favorite charities on your schedule — no rush before the tax deadline.

🏛 Simplified Giving: With a Donor Advised Fund, you can consolidate your charitable giving, making it easier to track donations and streamline tax reporting

$2-for-$1 Match Available For Your Gift

Now through Dec. 31, 2025, any gift to our Community Impact Fund will be matched $2-for-$1. This means for every $1 you give, our fund grows by $3 — allowing us to address critical community needs for generations.

QCDs: A Smart Way to Give for Good

If you are age 70½ or older, you can donate directly from your IRA to a qualified charity through a Qualified Charitable Distribution. This method not only supports important causes but also offers significant tax benefits.

✅Avoid Taxes on Your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD): A QCD satisfies all or part of your annual RMD, helping you lower your taxable income.

✅ No Need to Itemize: Even if you take the standard deduction, you can still benefit from a QCD.

✅ Give Up to $108,000 Tax-Free: For the year 2025, individuals can donate up to this amount directly from an IRA without it being considered taxable income.

✅Create a Lasting Impact: Your donation can support the causes that matter most to you, including community programs, education, healthcare, and more.

Why Should I Consider a QCD Gift?

Although you can make a QCD beginning at 70 1/2, when you turn 73 or older, you get “required minimum distributions” (RMDs) paid to you from your IRA account each year. You can’t avoid these distributions, and they increase your taxable income, sometimes in ways that may negatively impact certain tax credits or deductions, including Social Security and Medicare.

The QCD amount can be counted toward satisfying your RMDs for the year, and excludes the amount donated from your taxable income (unlike a regular withdrawal from your IRA).

Leading By Example: Judge J. Terrence Cody

Retired Circuit Court Judge J. Terrence Cody has always been committed to giving back to his community. Because of his career, he is familiar with the community’s challenges and needs.

After careful consideration, he decided to make a QCD gift to support CFSI’s unrestricted Community Impact Fund in 2024. The fund is designed to address our region’s most pressing needs and highest priorities. And now, thanks to the Lilly Endowment’s $2-for-$1 match, his gift – and its impact – will be tripled.

By contributing to this fund, Judge Cody knows his donation will be used strategically to create the greatest positive change across a variety of areas, such as education, health, economic development, and social services.

Cody’s gift reinforces his commitment to enhancing the quality of life in Southern Indiana. His thoughtful and strategic charitable giving sets an example for others, showcasing how retirement assets can be used to support and strengthen the community for generations.