Statement and transaction date

[Mike or Penny Novack]

On 12/28/2016 9:48 AM, Jean-David Beyer wrote:
> On 12/28/2016 08:21 AM, Mike or Penny Novack wrote:
>
>> Your books should reflect when YOU paid, not when it was
>> collected/processed against your account.
>>
> I am not sure about this.
>
> I am treasurer for a tax-exempt organization. When someone makes a
> donation by check, normally _I use the date written on the check_ as the
> date of the gift.
So  am I. The technically correct date is the one where you were handed 
the check, or if mailed, the postmark date. The date on the check? Still 
"tentative" < the person can change their minds about giving it over to 
anybody >

Anyway, the "received" date (if mailed, when mailed, not when mail 
arrived) is what I would use entering the transaction into "undeposited 
cash" << and not when I get to the bank to deposit it >>

Michael D Novack

  PS: And no, you don't pay taxes. But you may still be reporting. 
Amounts as of certain dates matter, since 990/990-EZs have to not only 
be in balance with themselves but must match previous years.

>
> But when the date on the check is late December, I look at the postmark
> on the envelope. If they mailed it in December, I still use the date on
> the check. Maybe even if postmark is January 2.
>
> But when the postmark is January 15, I count the date of the gift as the
> year of the postmark.
>
> What my records say do not affect my organization, since we are so tax
> exempt that we do not file income tax returns. But I do send each
> contributor a "thank you" letter that they can use if they itemize their
> income tax returns. So I will be sending out the 2016 letters pretty soon.
>
> When I am on the other side of a transaction, I keep the thank-you notes
> from the charitable organizations in case of audits, since I do itemize
> my deductions. I have never been audited. I wondered about that one year
> when I inherited a lot of money and donated _a lot_ of it to charity:
> more than half my adjusted gross income. So I carried over some of the
> contributions for a few years. But the IRS saw nothing funny about that:
> no audit, no letter requesting explanation.
>

-- 
There is no possibility of social justice on a dead planet except the equality of the grave.