2017 Official Tax Statement Shows No Donations

Just wondering if anyone else is encountering this. If I generate a 2017 donation summary, all donations are there including donations made in the Ward and online. But when I generate the official 2017 donor tax statement it indicates "No donations recorded." Our Ward clerk indicated that this has happened for everyone in our ward who has set up online donations and checked the box "My financial statements do not need to be printed by my Ward." He'll be contacting the Global Service Center this week to see if they can resolve it, but I was wondering if anyone else has dealt with this and found the solution. Our ward is in Calgary Canada. Thanks.

ewillett wrote:But when I generate the official 2017 donor tax statement it indicates "No donations recorded." Our Ward clerk indicated that this has happened for everyone in our ward who has set up online donations and checked the box "My financial statements do not need to be printed by my Ward."

Perhaps this is a country-specific problem? I am in the identical situation in the U.S. and had no problem obtaining my tax statement. In fact, after I downloaded the statement I deleted it at the Donations site, but it has since regenerated again. All the information is there still as expected.

Your clerk is headed in the right direction for help from the GSC.

I'm also in Canada and I had the same issue : online donations not showing on the tax statement (for one member only). Hope it gets resolved soon.

gabjette wrote:(for one member only). Hope it gets resolved soon.

Has it worked for others? If so, you might suggest to that one member that they delete the Statement they have at Donations and try to regenerate it again. After that, it is patience and the GSC, I suppose.

I'm having the same problem - I'm generating the tax statement but it's seems to be generating a US Tax receipt - doesn't recognize i need a Canadian tax receipt (i live in Canada, paid in Canadian dollars...). As i'm not in the states, the receipt it generates shows $0, but if I pull up my donation statement for the previous year all my donations are there. any thoughts?

Assuming the issue is as simple as stated (rather than something like the ward or branch being actually based in the US), the fastest way to get it resolved is most likely to use the 'Feedback' button in the relevant area to report a bug and request that the report be escalated to the engineering group. In the feedback, please provide as much detail as possible for the front-line Church service missionary to determine whether to escalate it.

Canada has a special tax form for this purpose. Is it possible that you cannot print it online and that you are required to get it from your clerk for the form to be valid? There was a time (and possibly still is) when Church headquarters could not issue the form in Canada. It had to be prepared by the Church financial representative in that country.

You may wish to speak with your local clerk to see what the current policy is in Canada.

A brief scan of the Canada Revenue Agency website suggests the following. Full disclosure: I am not an accountant nor do I have any experience at all with Canadian financial matters.

Official donation receipts in Canada are serial-numbered. There is no requirement for a registered charity in Canada to issue an official donation receipt or that it issue a receipt within a certain time frame. Agencies are strongly encouraged to issue receipts because the receipt is required for a taxpayer to claim credit for a donation. (And the Church does issue receipts.)

The Canada Revenue Agency suggests that registered charities issue receipts by February 28. This is different from the U.S. rule that Statements are required to be issued by January 31.

It is very difficult, but not impossible, to issue a Canadian receipt electronically. Receipts must be serial numbered and contain specific information, including the address of the recipient (and would need to be corrected if the address does not match the address on the tax return). Any replacement receipt must have a new serial number and reference the serial number of the original receipt. This would make it difficult for a member to print off a receipt, then print another one if the first was misplaced.

And that is just for starters. So again, I would suggest speaking with your clerk to find out how the Church handles official donation receipts in Canada. It could be as simple as waiting for the February 28 suggested date, or as complicated as the preparation of triplicate-copy serial-numbered receipts for Canadian members.

Your clerk should know the answer to these questions or be able to obtain it for you.

ok thanks - I'll just get them to print it off then. Thanks for the quick response

I have a 30 July 2017 Donated to ward for the amount of 100. I have an Annual Charitable Cash Contributions Official Tax Summary Statement. Then I have a different statement for our Online Donations. Why are they not on the same page?

lesliefpack wrote:I have a 30 July 2017 Donated to ward for the amount of 100. I have an Annual Charitable Cash Contributions Official Tax Summary Statement. Then I have a different statement for our Online Donations. Why are they not on the same page?

If you have discrepancies you need to contact your ward clerk to resolve them. Something may have been credited incorrectly or may not have been linked to your membership number. But the ward clerk or financial clerk can make the necessary corrections.

In addition, to what eblood66 said, not all donations are tax deductable. Typically, donations to "other" (YM/YW camp, etc.) are not deductable.