For the third time in six weeks, a law enforcement family is grieving.
In response, you might be wanting to donate money to family of El Paso County Sheriff's Deputy Micah Flick, who was shot and killed Monday while pursuing an auto theft suspect in Colorado Springs.
El Paso County Sheriff's Deputy Scott Stone and Sgt. Jake Abenschan were shot and injured. Colorado Springs police officer Marcus Yanez was also shot and injured.
The El Paso County Sheriff's Office is asking for donations for Flick's family be made to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office Foundation. Right now, they have only offered an address:
- 1980 Dominion Way, Ste. 200. Colorado Springs, CO 80918
On Monday night, the Brotherhood for the Fallen Aurora, a non-profit for Aurora and Thornton officers that uses donations to attend services and support families of fallen officers across the country, tweeted the following:
It got us wondering. Does the recipient of the donation get taxed depending on where you send the money?
"The answer's not clear. One possible position that one could take is that when a gift is made to a GoFundMe site, to benefit a particular person, that that is the same as making a gift directly to that person," said Sharon Lassar, DU's Director of the School of Accountancy. "Gifts that are given with donative intent are not taxable to the recipient of the gift."
In plain English, if you give to a charitable foundation, registered with the Internal Revenue Service, the person who receives your donation should not be taxed on it. If you give it through something like GoFundMe, it should be treated as a charitable gift, but there's no guarantee.
"Putting the crowd funding site in between the donor and the recipient of those funds adds a little bit of confusion," said Lassar.
According to Lassar, if the money is taxed as additional income, depending on the person's tax bracket, they could face a tax hit of zero to 37 percent.
On the selfish side, if you want to receive a tax benefit for giving the donation, you would not want to donate through a site like GoFundMe.
"If you want a charitable contribution deduction on your tax return, then your only option is to make the gift to a charitable organization," said Lassar.
