It's tax time, so of course I'm getting donors who gave us gifts last fiscal year wanting tax receipts for those gifts now.
I've got a donor who hosted a party for us last year, never submitted a form for us to recognize the in-kind gift, but is now giving us the information for that expense and requesting a receipt.
The in-kind gift (party) was held May 2018. I can record the gift in our current fiscal year, but I'm stumped as to the best practice for the Contribution Date. Technically, they paid for or transferred the gift in May 2018. But I'm entering it in March 2019. If I enter May of 2018 as the Contrib Date so it pulls into their tax letter as a 2018 contribution, does that totally mess up all my reporting?
Any advice appreciated.
Hi Keri!
In instances like these, my organization put the contribution date as the date on the in-kind processing form and then back dated the actual tax letter that was sent to the in-kind donor since there's a difference between the processing date and the contribution date. You're able to manipulate the contribution date but the processing date stays the actual date it was processed.
Hope this helps!
- Kari