Paying tithing with stocks ?

Hello all, what are steps one has to do if they want to pay tithing via stocks ?

runnerguy45 wrote:Hello all, what are steps one has to do if they want to pay tithing via stocks ?

The member should contact the Donations in Kind Department at Church headquarters. The number is 801.240.2554. They will provide instructions and will furnish the receipt.

The ward is not involved with donations in kind.

There is more information on donating stock on the LDS Philanthropies website here: http://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/planned-giving/ways-i-can-give/assets/securities-1.html

In addition to the phone number Bro. Jackson provided, you can also email your question to donationsinkind@ldschurch.org.

I've donated stock in the past and was very pleased with the way it was handled. One caution though, if you plan to do this for credit in a particular calendar year, don't wait until the last week in December. Depending on your broker, it can sometimes take a few weeks to finalize the transaction.

What about Bitcoin? I would like to donate some. Here is an article where the IRS declared Bitcoin as property. There are going to be request worldwide to take these as they have appreciated similiar to stocks.

http://blogs.wsj.com/totalreturn/2014/0 ... n-bitcoin/

mhcook wrote:What about Bitcoin? I would like to donate some.

I would refer you to the post before yours, where contact information for the Donations Department was provided. It's my understanding that the Church is primarily interested in assets that can readily be converted to cash, so the real question the Donations people will want to answer is whether a particular asset meets that criterion. So I'd recommend that you ask them; no one on this forum is qualified to answer that.

Yeah tithing with Bitcoin would so awesome! I'm receiving my salary in Bitcoin and this is would really awesome breakthrough - especially for those members who live in the geographical areas where's no Church. Also Bitcoin is positioned as "freedom" money and it has no fees, I think Church leaders must consider it closely!

Look at the example - there was $140,000 donated during the first week Wikipedia started accepting Bitcoin as donations!

Another tip. I waited till very late this year to try to pay my tithing with some appreciated company stock I had held for some time. I pay my tithing at year end and had been planning to pay this way for some months. I foolishly assumed there would be an easy, instant online process. No. There is a cumbersome paper process that involves mailing in forms with witnessed signatures, etc. Not enough time on December 29 to complete the process (hold your comments on procrastination). Both the donations in kind office and several people at my brokers (Fidelity) 800 stock transfer number told me was basically overnight the documents and we will make a best effort but probably not. What they all failed to mention is that I could go to the local office if there is one and do the transfer on the spot. Closest office was a 45 minute drive to SLC, which was less time than it would take to fill out the forms, get signatures witnessed, send fed ex overnight for morning delivery etc. Fidelity said they do about 50 a day this time of year. I needed to transfer about 20 lots for a total of 424 shares. They filled out some paperwork at the front counter in about to minutes and the transfer was executed later that same day.

Fidelity also has a donation account process that may make things even easier. I have not investigated this fully yet

Blockchain Technology is EXCELLENT means for the church to receive donations. All the church needs to do is set up a "Wallet" with a deposit address for perhaps the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap of the companies. Any member wishing to donate could, with that address simply transfer the donation directly from his account to the church. the church, having set up the account could immediately liquidate the funds --trading immediately for most any fiat currency where needed whether it be US Dollars of Mexican Peso or French franc or ANY other currency. I worked in Saudi Arabia and it was very difficult to make donations in those days because we had no means to take receipt of the members funds--no church bank account. Please, church leaders, act immediately to facilitate the receipt of cryptocurrency into the church. I have served as a Ward Clerk and Financial Clerk for many years on both the ward and Stake level and this is something that should be implemented immediately in my opinion to facilitate members allover the world and assist them in their desire to be obedient in payment of their tithes and offerings. Also eliminates cost of money orders and cashiers checks. I am actually a bit surprised that the church has not already set up wallets to accept donations of Crypto currency as it is a technology that is safe and allows for annonymous donations.

dalescutler wrote:I am actually a bit surprised that the church has not already set up wallets to accept donations of Crypto currency as it is a technology that is safe and allows for annonymous donations.

You can donate via Bitcoin (and possibly other cryptocurrency), but you need to go through LDS Philanthropies as it is considered a "donation in kind."

The great thing about using stock transfers for paing tithing is having "0" on your tithing settlement receipt whilst claiming full tithe payment. Some like privacy as to their income.

Tithing will not show in the local unit, but amounts contributed to Fast Offerings do show in the unit. Regarding Tithing, personally I never want my Judge in Israel to be left with a question in his mind. I have copied the Bishop on the email to donations in kind to keep him informed. (When sitting on the other side of the table, I have had a member state tithing status that was not truthful with claims of contributing donations in kind.)

As of this morning, cryptocurrencies are not acceptable in-kind donations. I just got this back from donationsinkind@ldschurch.org:

These methods of donating have been discussed and reviewed. Currently, bitcoin or Ethereum are not approved methods for making donations to the church so we are unable to accept it.

FidelityCharitable.org does accept a few of them however, and I have already paid tithing for years by transferring long-term held, appreciated stocks into my donor-advised fund then writing a grant recommendation to the Church from there (which just sends a USD check). I haven't contributed crypto to FC before but I'm in the process of doing so.

Did you complete your Bitcoin donation?

allenblatter wrote:Did you complete your Bitcoin donation?

Yes. Fidelity Charitable accepted by bitcoin donation and I was able to then "recommend a grant" from my Fidelity fund to the Church as tithing in terms of the USD that came from Fidelity Charitable's liquidating of the BTC.
While FC doesn't guarantee how quickly after a contribution BTC will be sold, for me it was within minutes. This was providential because it was just before BTC started tanking so I was able to get nearly the maximum USD for it, which then went on to the Church.