Institute of Contemporary Art Miami ICA Miami

A charitable lead trust is the reverse of a charitable remainder trust; the gift to ICA Miami is the income stream from the trust, not the remainder. Charitable lead trusts enable you to provide an income stream to ICA Miami immediately for a set term of years or for a term measured by one or more lifetimes after which the trust assets pass to you or your estate or to your heirs. Leaving the asset to heirs can significantly reduce the gift or estate tax that would otherwise apply.

Assets in qualified (tax-deferred) retirement plans may represent a large portion of your total assets and therefore may be an important factor in planning testamentary charitable gifts. Retirement assets generally considered suitable for charitable gifts include such plans as IRAs, Keoghs, SEPs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and ESOPs.

Left to family members or friends, these assets are subject to income tax and may also be subject to estate tax and generation-skipping transfer tax. Because of this potential double layer of tax, retirement plan assets may be particularly attractive as an asset to leave to ICA Miami. In other words, if you designate ICA Miami as a beneficiary upon your death of all or a specified percentage of a retirement plan, the portion of the plan payable to ICA Miami will generally escape estate taxes, and ICA Miami, as a tax-exempt institution, will not be required to pay income tax on the distributions. As a general rule, if you intend to make both noncharitable and charitable gifts at death, it makes sense to consider using your tax-deferred retirement plan assets for charity and other assets for heirs.

Naming ICA Miami the beneficiary of an existing life insurance policy that is no longer needed to provide for dependents offers a simple way to support this institution. Since you are the policy owner, the value of the policy will be included in your estate, but an offsetting estate-tax charitable deduction will generally be allowed. You may also be able to assign an existing whole life policy to ICA Miami, irrevocably making us the owner and beneficiary, and claim an income-tax charitable deduction for the lesser of either your basis in the policy or its fair market value in that year.

If the policy is not paid up and additional premium payments are due, you may donate cash or the equivalent to ICA Miami to pay the premiums each year and claim a full tax deduction for the gift. Lastly, you may be able to purchase a new policy naming ICA Miami as owner and beneficiary, pay the annual premiums (through us), and claim the premium amount as a charitable contribution.

An IRA Charitable Rollover Distribution is an effective way to create tax advantages as you support ICA Miami. For IRA owners who are required each year to take minimum required distributions, included in their gross income for income tax purposes, the IRA Charitable Rollover allows individuals over age 70½ to directly transfer up to $100,000 per year from an IRA account to charities of their choice. This transfer counts toward the minimum required distribution rule for IRA accounts, and distributions are free from income and estate taxes.

Gifts of real estate and other property enable you to benefit the Museum in a variety of creative ways, which may provide you with flexibility, financial benefits, or both. Gifts of real estate can be made outright to ICA Miami, and can include, but are not limited to, commercial, residential, open land, and condominiums. Each gift of real estate is different, and ICA Miami will evaluate each potential gift on a case by case basis. Outright gifts may qualify you for a federal income tax charitable deduction for the full fair market value of your gift. Other gifted property can include stock in privately held companies, partnership interests, and personal property such as artwork and antiques. Federal income tax charitable deductions for these types of gifts depend upon the property; ICA Miami can help you assess your advantage.