Mailing Tithing Statements

[aebrown]

Additionally, now that the church is providing the consolidated statements for people who moved during the year, are we still required to mail the ward-only statement to them? It seems unnecessary, but the instructions from the church are unchanged: "Distribute tax-valid statements before Jan. 31." Period.

If you examine the article Annual Charitable Cash Contributions Official Tax Summary Statement, you'll see that it states that for donors who donate in more than one unit, this ACCCOTSS (it's a mouthful even as an abbreviation) is sent. It then says that "In the past, donors would have to obtain a tax-valid donation statement from each unit to which he or she donated."

Although I would hope that the instructions would be a bit more explicit, that seems to state pretty clearly that it is no longer necessary for donors in this situation to obtain a tax statement from each unit. Now it's certainly not always obvious which of your former members are in this situation, so this won't help in all cases, but it may reduce the burden on clerks in some cases.

Note that this applies only to donors in the United States who donated to more than one unit.

[benjamincarleski]

If I were to guess as to why there is so little "official" policy on this, I would say because it may depend on where you are at. Financial policy, especially tax related, is very country dependent and so there may not be a standard way of doing it that would work world-wide. It can be very frustrating sometimes to not have clear, easily accessible direction when there is potentially legal liability involved (though in reality you could always just go back and print a new one if they come asking for it).

The official channel for questions like this is for you to contact your stake clerk. If they aren't sure, they can escalate the question to the finance department, or the local administrative center (for units outside the US and Canada), who can provide a definitive answer for your locale.

[lajackson]

Regarding the question of mailing the tax-valid statements when you are unable to hand-deliver them. I'm new to the calling, so this is my first time through tithing settlement and tax forms, and I have become very frustrated with the lack of concrete instructions on this topic, specifically what to do when no address is available.

At the Print and Distribute Donor Statements page, a comment says

If donors are no longer members of your ward, deliver or mail donor statements to those you have addresses for. Keep the rest for one year in case donors ask for them.

While I recognize that this is hardly official, it is the instruction I have always received when I ask the question. I have sent feedback on that page to ask that this be clarified, but that is the policy we have always followed.

Ultimately, it is the member's responsibility to ask for tax donation statements. As a courtesy (and by Church policy), we do all we can to see that they receive them by the end of January each year.

[davesudweeks]

In the US, the donor is responsible to obtain it, and the charitable organization is responsible to provide it if requested. Other approved documentation can include bank records, cancelled checks, etc. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1771.pdf (see pages 3 and 4)

[lajackson]

I have sent feedback on that page to ask that this be clarified

I received an answer to the feedback, but it was not complete. I have not received a response to my request for further clarification.

[eliasobr]

Last year, our statements for multi-unit donors didn't come until February 3rd. Perhaps they came in the week before that, but we didn't come in mid-week that week and so didn't see them until the 3rd. I expect they want to make sure all the end-of-year donations are processed and entered before generating the final statements.

Hi - Not sure if this question was ever answered. Here's a similar question:

I'm the finance clerk in my ward. I've had a few people asking if they can get donation history coming from other wards. That is, we are their primary ward (and have been for years), but they want to use our local MLS to get their donations when they visit other wards (an example might be donating to a missionary at a different branch or doing fast offerings when vacationing, etc). Any help here?

Thanks,

[russellhltn]

If thier membership records were never in that ward, I'd have to say "no". The donations find thier way to the home ward via the membership number. But currently there is no way to do that unless thier record were in the ward.

[lajackson]

I've had a few people asking if they can get donation history coming from other wards. That is, we are their primary ward (and have been for years), but they want to use our local MLS to get their donations when they visit other wards (an example might be donating to a missionary at a different branch or doing fast offerings when vacationing, etc). Any help here?

This is not available at the present time. The combined statements you received were for members who lived in another ward, donated there, and then moved to your ward.

When a member contributes to the ward missionary fund of another ward, there is no way at present for that ward to enter the membership record number, which would tie the records together.

[Mikerowaved]

So the answer is, the member would have to contact each ward they donated to and request a statement be mailed.

[jspector]

I was thrilled to see the combined statements for new ward members come in time for us to distribute prior to 31 January. But we knew to look for them since there was no notice that they were there in Financial Statements. I ended up sending one out to a former Ward member because their new Ward couldn't seem to find them and I wasn't successful in explaining to the member where his clerk should look.

Better notice and instruction would be helpful.