A charitable bequest is one of the easiest and most flexible ways that you can leave a gift to Village Theatre that will make a lasting impact.

Benefits of a bequest

• Receive an estate tax charitable deduction
• Reduce the burden of taxes on your family
• Leave a lasting legacy to charity

How a bequest works

A bequest is one of the easiest gifts to make. With the help of an attorney, you can include language in your will or trust specifying a gift to be made to family, friends or Village Theatre as part of your estate plan, or you can make a bequest using a beneficiary designation form.

Here are some of the ways to leave a bequest to Village Theatre

• Include a bequest to Village Theatre in your will or revocable trust
• Designate Village Theatre as a full, partial or contingent beneficiary of your retirement account (IRA, 401(k), 403(b) or pension)
• Name Village Theatre as a beneficiary of your life insurance policy

A bequest may be made in several ways

• Percentage bequest – make a gift of a percentage of your estate
• Specific bequest – make a gift of a specific dollar amount or a specific asset
• Residual bequest – make a gift from the balance or residue of your estate

You may be looking for a way to make a big difference to help further our mission. If you are 70½ or older, an IRA charitable rollover is a way you can help continue our work and benefit this year.

Benefits of an IRA charitable rollover

• Avoid taxes on transfers of up to $100,000 from your IRA to our organization
• Satisfy your required minimum distribution (RMD) for the year
• Reduce your taxable income, even if you do not itemize deductions
• Make a gift that is not subject to the deduction limits on charitable gifts
• Help further the work and mission of our organization

How an IRA charitable rollover gift works

1. Contact your IRA plan administrator to make a gift from your IRA to us.
2. Your IRA funds will be directly transferred to our organization to help continue our important work.
3. Please note that IRA charitable rollover gifts do not qualify for a charitable deduction.
4. Please contact us if you wish for your gift to be used for a specific purpose.

A beneficiary designation gift is a simple and affordable way to make a gift to support Village Theatre. You can designate us as a beneficiary of a retirement, investment or bank account or your life insurance policy.

Benefits of a beneficiary designation gift

• Support the causes that you care about
• Continue to use your account as long as you need to
• Simplify your planning and avoid expensive legal fees
• Reduce the burden of taxes on your family
• Receive an estate tax charitable deduction

How a beneficiary designation gift works

1. To make your gift, contact the person who helps you with your account or insurance policy, such as your broker, banker or insurance agent.
2. Ask them to send you a new beneficiary designation form.
3. Complete the form, sign it and mail it back to your broker, banker or agent.
4. When you pass away, your account or insurance policy will be paid or transferred to Village Theatre, consistent with the beneficiary designation.

Important considerations for your future

If you are interested in making a gift but are also concerned about your future needs, keep in mind that beneficiary designation gifts are among the most flexible of all charitable gifts. Even after you complete the beneficiary designation form, you can take distributions or withdrawals from your retirement, investment or bank account and continue to freely use your account. You can also change your mind at any time in the future for any reason, including if you have a loved one who needs your financial help.

You may be concerned about the high cost of capital gains tax with the sale of an appreciated asset. Perhaps you recently sold property and are looking for a way to save on taxes this year and plan for retirement. A charitable remainder unitrust might offer the solutions you need!

Benefits of a charitable remainder unitrust

• Receive income for life, for a term of up to 20 years or life plus a term of up to 20 years
• Avoid capital gains on the sale of your appreciated assets
• Receive an immediate charitable income tax deduction for the charitable portion of the trust
• Establish a future legacy gift to our organization

How a charitable remainder unitrust works

1. You transfer cash or assets to fund a charitable remainder unitrust.
2. In the case of a trust funded with appreciated assets, the trust will then sell the assets tax-free.
3. The trust is invested to pay income to you or any other trust beneficiaries you select based on a life, lives, a term of up to 20 years or a life plus a term of up to 20 years.
4. You receive an income tax deduction in the year you transfer assets to the trust.
5. Our organization benefits from what remains in the trust after all the trust payments have been made.

Are your appreciated assets, such as stock, bonds or real estate, producing little or no income? If you sell your appreciated assets, you will pay a large capital gains tax. A sale and charitable remainder unitrust may be the solution to avoid capital gains tax.

Benefits of a sale and unitrust

• Receive cash from the sale. You can use this cash to purchase another residence, to save for retirement, to travel, to meet your daily needs or to meet some other financial goal
• Receive income from the unitrust for the rest of your life and future retirement
• Obtain an income tax deduction that may reduce your tax bill this year
• Further the work of Village Theatre with your gift

How a sale and unitrust works

1. You establish a charitable remainder unitrust and transfer a portion of your assets to the trust.
2. The assets are then sold. You receive cash from the sale, and the rest of the sale’s proceeds are paid to the charitable unitrust.
3. The trust will provide you with income for the rest of your life.
4. You receive a charitable deduction this year to offset your tax on the cash proceeds that you receive from the sale.

More on sale and unitrust

When transferring a portion of your primary residence to fund a unitrust, you may apply your one-time home exclusion to reduce or eliminate capital gains tax that would otherwise be due from the sale. Your tax advisor can assist you to determine if you should utilize this strategy.

You may be looking for a way to provide your children with income while making a gift to Village Theatre. The “give it twice” trust is a popular option that allows you to transfer your IRA or other asset at death to fund a term of years charitable remainder unitrust. We call this kind of unitrust a give it twice trust because you can use the trust to pay income first to your family for a number of years and then distribute the balance of the trust to charity.

Benefits of a give it twice trust

• Use the full value of your unused retirement account to provide income to your surviving spouse and to provide income to children or other loved ones for a specified period of time
• Create an estate tax deduction and savings from the charitable gift
• Support the important charitable work of Village Theatre

How a give it twice trust works

1. We can help you and your attorney with the process of creating a charitable remainder unitrust.
2. You complete an IRA or other retirement account beneficiary designation form, naming the charitable trust as the beneficiary, and return the form to the account custodian.
3. When you pass away, the custodian will transfer your retirement account to the charitable trust.
4. The trust will pay income to your spouse, children or other individual beneficiaries for their life, term of years or life plus term of years.
5. At the conclusion of the payments, the balance of the trust will be transferred to Village Theatre.

You may desire to leave your home or farm to Village Theatre at your death but would also like to receive a current charitable income tax deduction. A life estate reserved might offer the solution you need!

Benefits of a life estate reserved

• Receive a federal income tax deduction for the value of the remainder interest in your home or farm
• Preserve your lifetime use and control of your home or farm
• Create a life estate based on more than one life. This will preserve the use of the property for you and a loved one, such as a spouse or dependent child

How a life estate works

1. You deed your home or farm to Village Theatre. The deed will include a provision that gives you the right to use your home or farm for the rest of your life and that of any other life estate party named in the deed.
2. You and Village Theatre sign a maintenance, insurance and taxes (MIT) agreement to explain that you will do your best to keep the property in good condition and that you will maintain property insurance and pay the property taxes.
3. When the owners of the life estate have passed away, your home or farm will belong to Village Theatre. We will use or sell the property to further our charitable work.

Additional Information

Life Estates Work for Spouses Too – The life estate can last for your life or based on your life and that of another person, such as a spouse or loved one.

Mortgage Debt – It is possible for you to make a gift of your property even though there is a mortgage upon the residence.

Maintenance Issues – You will be responsible for the maintenance, insurance and taxes on the property, just as you were prior to creating the life estate.

Life Estates Are Flexible – If, at some point in the future, you are no longer able to live independently in your home, we may be able to help you use your life estate to create a lump sum cash payment (with a joint sale) or create an income stream (using the life estate to fund a charitable remainder trust or charitable gift annuity).