Why do we send donations to the USA?
In the USA, we are known as a charity. There are two types of charitable organizations as far as the IRS is concerned, private foundations and public charities. In both of these cases, the income produced by the organization is except from income taxes, but only public charities permit their contributors to deduct their contributions from their gross income. Clearly, it is better to be a public charity, as that allows our members to deduct their donations from their USA taxes.
Now one of the requirements for being a public charity is that no one contributor can give more than one-third of the money raised during each year.
To quote publication 557 of the IRS
Generally speaking, a large class of organizations excluded under section 509(a)(1) and all organizations excluded under section 509(a)(2) depend upon a support test. This test is used to assure a minimum percentage of broad-based public support in the organization's total support pattern. Thus, in the following discussions, when the one-third support test (see Qualifying As Publicly Supported, later) is referred to, it means the following fraction normally must equal at least one-third:
Qualifying support
Including items of support in qualifying support (the numerator of the fraction) or excluding items of support from total support (the denominator of the fraction) may decide whether an organization is excluded from the definition of a private foundation, and thus from the liability for certain excise taxes. So it is very important to classify items of support correctly.
So, in order for the Godfreys and the Laxens to continue to give (and deduct) their contributions, we need to raise at least that same amount from other sources, or we violate the one-third rule. So any USD donations received should be run through the US account, in case we are ever audited again.
> I attended the meeting of the Animal Shelter tonight, and I have one > question, having belonged to organizations in the past, I was > surprised that even tho you have a President, Sec. and treasurer, etc, > you did not read the last months minutes, or a treasurer's report, or > make motions to vote on suggestions, by the members....or do you even > have members?? I am just wondering why?? To have an organization as > such, you have to have a foundation base, and members should have a > vote..... > Billie Soltis
> Dear Billie, We have in all our past meetings used Roberts Rules Of Order. This meeting our president Jo Ann Scott said in her opening statment to the members that tonight do to the shutting down of the shelter we would make a statement which she did. Hand out an accounting summery. Open our selves up for questions from the public as to why we are making changes. All future meetings will be run under the Roberts Rules Of Order and they are as you have stated below. By the way minutes were taken of to nights meeting. Once we sort out the exact direction we are taking the shelter, we will have more information to pass on and vote on. Tonight we could do nothing but give you our dreams?! Once the shleter is closed and then cleaned and fited for a vet to use we can move forward towards hiring a vet and offering him a contract. This is again why we need a month to decide how to get it right and not make mistakes when we do put a vet in the shelter. By the way the next time you come to one of our meetings and I hope that you do. We always carry our minutes with us for referance. You may feel free to ask Valerie to take a look through them. She would be more than happy to let you see how we conduct our meetings. This book is at every meeting and also was there tongight if you had want to see it. Thank you for your question. I am sure someone else may have had this question and it is always good to get thing out in the open. Also thank for coming tonight I hope you come again to our next meeting. For now they are the secound Wed. of the month. We are checking into another locations. You will be notified. Nadine Laxen