Overview
This article covers common questions regarding year-end statements like how to print individual ones for a donor for previous years, how householding is handled, what donations are included and more.
Linked Articles:
- How to Send Tax Summaries Using Kindful's built-in Tool
- Best Practices When Preparing Tax Summaries.
What year does the tax summaries tool use when sending tax summaries?
The tool will always show the previous calendar year. It will reset on January 1 each year. For example, on December 15, 2020, you will see tax summaries from 2019. On January 1, 2021, you will see tax summaries from 2020.
Does the new Tax Summaries Tool consider my householding settings in Kindful?
No. The new Tax Summaries Tool creates one tax summary PDF per individual contact record in Kindful. To use householding features (i.e. if you want contacts in the same household to be merged into one tax summary letter), go to Contacts, enter in the filters "Has Transaction In Year:" then the corresponding year, and then select Mail Merge on the right sidebar. Only the spouse marked as head of household will hold the household transactions, because only their data will come through on the transaction tags used in a mail merge. This means that only one of the records generated in a mailing where the option to send to household is selected will contain all of the gifts.
Which letter template does the new Tax Summaries Tool use?
The Tax Summaries Tool uses a template that prints the address in the window for a #9 size envelope.
Which name is used for Tax Summaries?
Kindful will use the First Name + Last Name of contacts for the summary. Use our other naming tags (e.g. Formal Name) for your cover letter.
When I email the tax summaries from the Tax Summaries Tool, what email do they get sent from?
By default, emails will come from support@kindful.com, but you can change this setting. Learn more about changing the “From” email address here.
What does the email look like?
- Subject: <org name> <year> Tax Summary
- Body: Thank you for supporting <org_name> in <year>. Attached is your annual giving statement for income tax purposes.
- Attachment: <org name>_<year>_tax_summary.pdf
Why didn’t a contact receive a tax summary email?
At least one of the following could be true:
- Their contact's email may be marked as Email Deliverable: No
- They do not have an email listed in Kindful
- Their associated email is invalid
- They did not donate in that given year
What if a contact’s primary email is marked Email Deliverable: No, but their alternate email is deliverable?
The Email Deliverable field applies to the entire contact, so even if the contact has a valid email in the alternate field, the contact still would not receive emails.
I just made a change, but why haven’t the counts on the the Tax Summaries Tool changed?
Try refreshing the page. Kindful’s calculations may have up to a 10 minute delay.
How do I email a one-off tax summary?
To email an individual tax summary, go to the donor’s contact profile in Kindful. On the main contact profile view there is a Reports section where you can download tax summaries for that donor. Download the tax summary you wish to send, review the document for accuracy, then attach it to an email using your preferred email client.
I found a mistake in my tax summary template but already sent them. What do I do?
The Tax Summaries Tool allows you to send the tax summary template multiple times to the same recipients. If tax summaries were sent containing typos or errors, we recommend reaching out to the donors separately to inform them a new tax summary will be sent. Then, correct the tax summary template as needed, add a note in the footer message of the template, and send again.
I'm missing some tax summaries. Where could they be?
If a contact is eligible to receive a tax summary, they will be included in the list to receive one. It is just a question of whether they will get an email or a printed summary. We advise checking each list to ensure that your contacts are in one of the lists. If the contacts have a bad email or an incomplete mailing address, they may appear in your list of contacts that are not eligible to receive a summary.
What if I have contacts who are missing an email?
You can find contacts in Kindful that do not have an email two ways:
1) Go to Contacts and add the filter “Has Email: No”. To find those that gave to your organization in a specific year, add the filter “Has Transaction in Year: 2019”.
2) Go to Tools, then Tax Summaries. You can then select View List under both the following sections: Some tax summaries cannot be mailed or emailed and Some tax summaries can be mailed but not emailed.
What if I have contacts that have neither an email nor a mailing address?
Contacts need at least a valid email or a valid mailing address in order to receive a tax summary letter. If Kindful finds contacts that are missing an email and mailing address, it will show you these in the top section of the Tax Summaries Tool. Kindful advises you to add either an email address or mailing address to each of the flagged contacts before proceeding. Click the View List button to view these contacts and take action.
How do I know a donor received their emailed tax summary?
If you used the Tax Summaries Tool to send tax summaries via email, a line of activity will be created on each recipient’s profile to indicate the tax summary has been sent. This activity is not a guarantee that the donor received the email, in the case of a non-deliverable email address.
How do I know a donor received their mailed tax summary letter?
If you generate the PDF tax summary mailers using either Mail Merge or the Tax Summaries Tool, you’ll need to mark the letters as “Sent” on Mail Merge History after you’ve sent the tax summaries in the mail. Clicking this button will create a line of activity on each recipient’s profile to indicate the tax summary has been sent.
What about non-cash (in-kind) gifts and soft credits?
Non-Cash (In-Kind) Gifts:
When these are entered in Kindful, you are able (and required) to attach a monetary value to it. However, the tax-deductible amount of these donations is not determined by you, but by the donor when they are calculating their taxes. Thus, non-cash gifts do not appear on a tax summary.
Soft Credits:
When a transaction is entered in Kindful, it is attached to a contact and is always "hard credited" to that contact. That is the contact who will receive credit (in terms of taxes) for the donation, regardless of any soft-credits that are applied.
Many organizations often use soft credits for doling out credit to individuals when they receive a lump sum from a donor-advised fund. From a tax perspective, the organization is not responsible for providing tax information to these individual donors -- the DAF is. Thus, the tax summary tool will not attribute taxable amounts to these soft-credited donors.
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