The American
ORGANIZATION FOCUS
The Anglo–American Charity A useful organization to help you maximise your charitable giving to American charities and reduce your tax obligations The Anglo-American Charity Limited and its US parent, the Anglo-American Charitable Foundation were established in 2003 as dual qualified US-UK donor advised funds to facilitate Transatlantic gifting and to provide an alternative to CAF America. Americans are by definition generous givers to worthy causes. In 2012, Americans gave $316 billion to various cultural, religious, humanitarian and educational causes or an average of $2,000 for every household. Americans give three to seven times more than Western Europeans. In addition half of American adults volunteer their time. The dilemma for a potential donor living in the UK and paying tax in both the UK and the US is that the tax treatment of charitable gifts is not joined up. The UK encourages philanthropy by allowing a charity to obtain Gift Aid from the government on any donation made by a UK tax payer as well as allowing Higher Rate paying taxpayers to reclaim the basic rate of tax on any donation. The US will allow you to take a tax deduction for up to 50% of your
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total donations in any one year. However, the more you earn the less the deduction. In the case of someone paying the maximum tax rate, the deduction could be as little as 20% of the amount of one’s total donations. By making your donations through the Anglo-American Charity (or CAF America), you can
increase the value of your gift and reduce your US taxable income. Should you be interested in discussing gifts of over $1,000, please call Jeff Hedges, Director of the Anglo-American Charity Limited on 0203 059 6004 or email him at: info@anglo-americancharity.org. Our website is www.anglo-americancharity.org
As an example, Sue Smith wants to give her alma mater $25,000. If she does so through a dual qualified charity, the process is as follows: •
Sue will write a check for $20,600 (or the Sterling equivalent of )
•
The Anglo-American Charity will reclaim the Sterling equivalent of $5,150 from the UK government
•
After deducting its fee, the Anglo-American Charity will make a gift of $25,000 through its parent to Sue’s alma mater
•
Sue as a high rate tax payer can reclaim the basic rate of tax paid on the donation from the UK government
•
Sue will receive acknowledgements from both the US and UK charities for the amounts of the gifts she has made.