JANUARY 7, 2007

The first piece of mail that I opened in the new year was from the Internal Revenue Service informing me that I was eligible to participate in a new form of reporting my income and paying my taxes. It gave me an ID number, and said I could file a totally electronic form, no paperwork, if I wished. They would send me all the software for my computer to work out my taxes, and modem the results to the IRS directly. I imagine the simplified form to look something like this:

A. How much did you earn last year?
B. How much did you spend last year?
C. How much do you have left?
D. Please forward all of ( C ) to the IRS.

This gives me the opportunity to discuss some financial matters affecting you and the Parish:

1. We will be mailing to you a list of your contributions for 2006 by January 31, 2007. If you do not receive envelopes, you will not receive a report. If you receive envelopes, but didn't use them, you will receive a report marked $0.00 contributions, and the computer may deactivate you. You may be removed from the envelope list. And your status is reduced to inactive parishioner, which means that you will not qualify for things like sponsorship certificates, subsidized tuition at the school and a number of other things. Of course, you always have the right to come to Church, receive the sacraments if you are spiritually disposed and call upon the clergy for pastoral service. But you will lose some of the privleges of active participation.

2. Since we will not compute the report till the end of January, you have time to make contributions for the 2006 year, but you must make it clear to us that it is to be credited to the 2006 account. We have started the 2007 contribution records already.

3. We encourage you to check your chartiable contribution status with whoever does your taxes. If you have the ability to give more to the Church than you have, please consider marking the contribution to the maximum amount. It is better to give to the Parish than to the IRS, in my opinion! And it is legal to backdate the contributions. This is especially true for those 70 1/2 years old or older and who have and IRA or similar retirement account. You can make contributions directly from the account this year and next and receive big tax breaks. Call the office for information.

4. You can specify if you wish where certain contributions are to be allocated, and this can help us. For example, PSP contributions and large contributions to the Renovation Account are not taxed by the diocese, and therefore are worth 17.6% more than the amount you give since we save that assessment. Just make a note on the envelope or check where you would like your contribution allocated.

5. Cash is not the only contribution that would help us. For example, some people reassign stock to the parish. They may have paid a low price for it, but by giving it to the parish they get credit for a higher amount if the stock went up, and won't pay capital gains taxes. Check with your tax advisor. Computers donated to the school can be counted. And, also, we have need of automobiles for the foreign priest-students. These can represent considerable tax savings. Check with the Pastor.
Above all, thank you for your generosity and support of the Church and its work. We try to be good stewards here.

PS: Our financial situation is in fact improving thanks to your generosity. For the first time in the 14 year history of the Parish, this month we will pay ALL of our bills, including the $17,500 monthly insurance and benefits bill, which has never been done before. It is only a small step to operate in the black instead of a deficit for one month, but we will keep it up as long as we can! And we get to keep almost $13,000 in excess PSP collections tax-free. Please keep using your PSP envelopes every month so that we have a head start on the new assessment which we will receive in March. Happy New Year!