Send an annual tax summary
Before you start
Tax summaries are not an official tax document. If you’re a supporter who needs to resend an official receipt for tax purposes, view our guide.
Donor tax summaries help supporters file their taxes each year by including their charitable contributions to your organization in a single document.
They can include:
- Only recurring donations
- Only one-time donations
- Both recurring and one-time donations
Important: Ticket sales, auction items, and donations made on GoFundMe are not included in the tax summary.
You can choose whether to send the receipt to your supporters and choose when to send it. You can also customize the email that’ll go out to supporters with their receipts.
Edit and send donor tax summaries
Donor tax summaries are sent through email as PDF attachments. You can edit the appearance and content of the email, choose the transaction types to include in the attachment, and schedule when to send.
To edit and send the summaries:
- In your account, select Transactions and Transaction History
- In the annual tax summaries banner, select Check it out
Customize the PDF receipt
In the tax summary settings, you can edit the tax-deductible message on the PDF receipt and choose the transaction types you want to include. Once you've made your changes, you can review the PDF attachment by selecting Preview PDF receipt.
Edit the email
To edit the email, select Edit template. You can edit the content and colors of the headings and text, as well as customize the sender name and email address.
You can send yourself a test email in the editor to make sure the content and colors display the way you like.
Note: The message in the yellow box cannot be edited.
Schedule the email
Under Schedule email, you can set the date and time of day when the email is sent.
Before it is sent, you can return to cancel or reschedule the email. However, once the email is sent out, it cannot be edited again.
To view the full list of recipients after you send the email or resend it to individuals:
- In your account menu, select Transactions or Recurring Giving Plans
- In the annual tax summaries banner, select Review
Then, you can view the list of recipients and resend tax summaries to individuals.
Let supporters resend tax summaries
You can let supporters resend themselves their annual summary in the Supporter Center, but you need to ensure the setting is turned on in your account.
Learn how to adjust your organization’s Supporter Center settings
FAQs
Who will receive this annual donor tax summary?
The annual donor tax summary is sent to all individuals who donated in the past year, depending on the options selected. This can include recurring donors, one-time donors, or both groups.
Will the donor tax summary include any ticket purchases if any of the amount was tax-deductible?
No. Due to the complexity of determining tax deductibility for ticket purchases, those will be excluded this year.
Will donor tax summaries include donors who stop and restart a new recurring giving plan on the same annual summary report?
Yes. The summary will simply add all of the past year's successful transactions.
For recurring gifts, the itemized section of the PDF will display the status of the recurring giving plan that we attempted to process (i.e., in the PDF's itemized list, you may see a failed transaction, but the donation amount of the failed transaction will not be added to the total giving amount).
I don’t want this donor tax summary sent to my recurring donors. Can I turn it off?
Yes, you can choose the transaction types to be included in the tax summary.
If a supporter gave multiple gifts to a single organization using different currencies, will they receive separate donor tax summaries?
Yes, supporters receive separate tax summaries for each currency they donate in. These will include only the amount donated with that particular currency.
Can I send different messages to one-time vs. recurring donors?
Not at this time.
What email address will the donor tax summary be sent to?
The email address tied to the supporter profile is the one used. This is the same email where recurring donors receive monthly receipts.
If a donor has both recurring and one-time donations for a single organization, will they receive separate tax summaries?
No. Donors with both recurring and one-time donations will receive a single donor tax summary that combines totals from both types of donations.
Will transactions from Live Events be included in the tax summary?
Any donations made to your organization on Live Events will appear in the donor’s tax summary. However, auction items will not appear.
Are Giving Cart transactions included in the donor tax summary?
Yes, you'll notice Giving Cart transactions are categorized as 'Multiple' in the receipt's Type column. This is because a Giving Cart transaction can include multiple donations, including both one-time and recurring.