Tax Exempt Charitable Foundations

A tax-exempt charitable foundation gives a person and his heirs an opportunity to support their favorite philanthropic activities and charities, while at the same time, reducing the impact of federal estate taxes and capital gains taxes. If you want to establish a charitable foundation, that establishes a legacy for you and your family, seek professional legal guidance from an Orange County tax exempt attorney. The lawyers at the Citadel Law Corporation have more than two decades of experience helping high net-worth individuals and families across the Southern California region, establish charitable foundations to promote philanthropy causes dear to their hearts.

Sometimes, families prefer to create their own charitable foundations in order to distribute their wealth to the charities of their choice. In such cases, the most obvious choice is a private family foundation, also known as the 501 (c) (3) foundation.

A public foundation is typically run by an organization like a church, and may engage in activities that benefit certain groups of people. For instance, a public foundation may choose to run a homeless shelter or a shelter for abused women.

In contrast, a private foundation will not run activities on its own. Rather, the foundation exists to make grants to individuals and other organizations that can then use the money to run charities. A private foundation will not run the charitable program on its own. The Internal Revenue Service allows individuals to create private charitable organizations that have tax-exempt status.

The most important difference between a public and private foundation lies in their funding. A public foundation is typically funded by donations, and other funding from the public. A private foundation is funded by the family, and is usually created by a single benefactor. The benefactor could be an individual or business.

As the owner of a private family foundation, you can move assets to the foundation without having to worry about estate taxes and gift taxes.

To answer your questions about establishing a tax-exempt private charitable foundation, or to get started on establishing a private foundation, speak to an Orange County tax exempt attorney at the Citadel Law Corporation. Call 949-852-8181 to schedule a consultation with an attorney at our firm today.