If you've owned your home or other real estate for a long time, no doubt it has increased in value appreciably. What happens if you sell the property?

 

In many circumstances, should you not meet the requirements of available tax breaks, you must pay capital gains tax on the property's appreciation. Plus, marketing and selling real estate takes time and effort, even if you use professional assistance.

 

If you'd like to help meet our critical needs, your property opens the door to a unique giving opportunity: donate the property to Imago Dei MCC, either now or whenever you no longer need it.

 

Perhaps you're ready to move into a smaller house, a condominium or a retirement home. Maybe you have a vacation home you no longer use. Possibly you'd like to give up farm life for a place in town.

The home you're leaving can be given to Imago Dei MCC outright. If you have owned it for more than a year, you receive a tax deduction for the full current market value (rather than your lower cost basis), and you avoid capital gains tax on the appreciation. Your gift is deductible up to 30 percent of your adjusted gross income, with a five-year carryover allowed for any excess.

Another alternative is to transfer your unmortgaged home in which you no longer live or other unmortgaged real estate to a charitable remainder trust. This can be a productive gift for both of us, securing a life income for you and a survivor (such as your spouse), and providing us with much-needed assistance when the remainder comes to us at the termination of the trust. It works this way: Once the property has been transferred to the trust, the trustee can then sell it and invest the proceeds in income-producing securities, which become the source for the income payments to you and any other recipient you name.

When you give real estate, you know your gift will serve our long-term goals while meeting your short- and long-term desires.

 

Please check with Imago Dei MCC before making any gifts of this type.