Alumni and friends of New Mexico State University who are older than 70 ½ and have an individual retirement account (IRA) can make a charitable gift with funds in the IRA and not incur any tax liability in the process. However, this special provision is only available through the end of 2007.

Through a temporary revision of the Internal Revenue Code, individuals can instruct the custodian of their IRA to distribute an amount up to $100,000 directly to a qualified nonprofit organization, such as the New Mexico State University Foundation. The distribution will not be added to gross income and can be counted toward the required minimum distribution for the calendar year.

Until now, if you used IRA dollars to make a charitable gift, you had to withdraw the amount, include it in your taxable gross income, and then reduce your taxable income by the amount of an itemized charitable deduction. The net result was that you still paid some income tax on that withdrawal.

Join the many alumni and friends who have taken advantage of this opportunity to add to existing endowments or establish new ones. Your gift benefits the students and faculty of New Mexico State University.

Your pledge to the campaign for New Mexico State University will make a difference. Join the “Doing What Counts” team at giving.nmsu.edu.

For more information, contact Debbie Widger, director of planned giving, at (505) 646-5731 or dwidger@nmsu.edu.