Guidelines regarding donations eligible for this year's tax deduction

• Credit card, ACH, Google Pay, and PayPal donations must have a “transaction posting date” of December 31st or earlier. Due to batch processing, sometimes a parish may not receive the credit card or other electronic donations until January.

• Donations via check must be postmarked by USPS on or before December 31st. Checks sent via UPS, FedEx, DHL, or hand delivered must be physically received by December 31st. A check with a December date but a January postmark date is considered a tax deduction in the postmarked year.

• Wire transfer donations must be received by December 31st. It can take several days after a wire is initiated for the transfer to occur, so donors must plan ahead.

• Qualified charitable donations (QCD) are not deductible as charitable contributions but will be acknowledged as of the date the parish received the gift.

• Stock donations must be transferred (reflect the change in ownership to the parish or received by parish brokerage account) by December 31st to be eligible for tax deduction in this year. Donors must plan ahead.