💡 This article is part of our Guide to Tax Receipts

Description

To configure tax receipting, select the profile icon in the upper-right-hand corner, then select Organization Settings.

From here, scroll down to the Tax Receipting Panel and click the Edit button to configure the tax receipt settings.

Tax Receipts

In this section you can configure the following;

Enable tax receipts for eligible payments - On or Off
Authorized Signature

You can add the following items that will be automatically added to your default template.

Authorized Name
Authorized Title
Authorized Signature (image)

If you are using your own custom template, you will need to use the corresponding merge tags to pull the values into your receipt.

Receipting Preference

Receipt Type
- Consolidated: consolidated receipt is a combination of all taxable amounts consolidated into one annual receipt. Consolidated receipts allow you to issue a receipt for a specific receipting period.
- Individual: an individual receipt means that a tax receipt will automatically be sent as soon as any donation is processed (whether it's one-time or recurring). This option ensures real-time acknowledgment of every contribution and is ideal for organizations that wish to recognize each donation separately.
- Individual One-Time, Consolidated Recurring: this option will allow for single receipts to be sent when a supporter makes a one-time contribution while also consolidating recurring contributions into an annual receipt.
  - An individual receipt will be sent automatically when a one-time contribution is made. You'll need to manually batch-issue your tax receipts for your recurring contributions at the end of the fiscal year.

Choosing the Right Receipt Type:

Consider your donors' expectations and your administrative workflow when selecting a receipt type. Use 'Individual' if immediate acknowledgment of each transaction is important, or 'Individual One-Time, Consolidated Recurring' for a more streamlined year-end process for recurring donations.

Issuing Country - Set issuing country (Speak with your tax expert or accountant to determine your issuing country).
- Note: Tax receipt will be generated for the issuing country based on the donor's Billing Address.
- If 'Any Country' is selected, tax receipts will be issued to all donors regardless of their billing country.
Issued In - Allows you to specify a location
- Can be used in custom templates using the [[issued_in]] merge tag. If not specified, your organization's legal country will be used.
Label Language Preference (Canadian Organizations ONLY based on Organization settings country) - Allows you to order the language of the labels on bilingual tax receipts by the chosen language (English/ Français or Français/English).

Label Language Preference is only visible to Canadian Organizations.

Receipt # format

Contribution Display Settings
Show Line Items
- Enabling this will list contribution line items in the summary table.
  - The description for these items can be configured to have the default label, custom label or fund label. See KB article How to Customize Line Item Labels in the Tax Receipt Summary
Show Description
- Includes the description column in the summary table
Show Fund
- Includes a Fund column with the fund code in the summary table
Show Total Amount and FMV
- Provides FMV amount in a separately defined value (shown in brackets) to be more transparent for donors.

Receipting Templates

📢 No need to customize your receipt as Givecloud has built out an amazing default tax receipt! 🎉

Simply select the Automatic option to take advantage of this template.

Givecloud may update the automatic tax receipt feature as new product enhancements are released or when changes to compliance requirements arise.

If you want to customize your own, set to Custom and use the template options below.

If your country in Organization Settings is set to Canada, the merge tags for the labels in the default template are bilingual.

Templates

If the Custom template option is selected, you can choose from the list of templates presented.

Click the 3 dots button beside the template to edit or duplicate the template.

Duplicate

You can copy the default if you want to make any edits by clicking the copy icon beside your existing tax receipt template.

Edit

Editing your tax receipt allows you to make edits as you see fit. It is recommended to copy your default or live template prior to making edits just so you don't make unexpected changes.

The Use as default toggle sets your default template.

The template supports all merge tags noted in the merge tag cheat-sheet below the editing window.

🎉 Preview 🎉

Want to see exactly what your supporters will see? 👀 You can preview your tax receipt by clicking the Preview button in the upper right of the Tax Receipt Template Edit window.

See below an example of the default Givecloud created tax receipt!

Email Notification

Edit Email takes you directly to the Automated Email Tax Receipt email notification. This can also be found in Email Automation > System Emails > Contributions > Tax Receipt: To Supporter.

Create a Receiptable Item

Before you can automate your tax receipts on Givecloud, enable 'Allow Tax Receipts' on your receiptable items. This setting is the key element that determines whether a donation will generate a tax receipt.

1. From the left menu, go to Fundraise.

Click on a receiptable item (e.g. a donation product), and click Customize. Ensure the price type of the item is set to 'Donation' and not 'Fixed Price' as this can affect whether tax receipts are triggered.

3. On the right-side Options panel, check ‘Allow Tax Receipts.’

4. Save.

Important Notes:

If you add a Fair Market Value (FMV) to your item, it will impact the amount showing on the tax receipt.
If FMV is set to $0 (left blank), the tax receipt will reflect the total donation amount.
If FMV is greater than $0, the tax receipt will reflect the donation amount minus the FMV. If no tax receipt is generated, verify that the Fair Market Value (FMV) is not set equal to the donation amount, as this cancels out the eligible donation portion.

Testing and Verification

After configuring your tax receipt settings, it's important to verify that everything works as expected:

Make a test contribution to ensure that tax receipts are issued as expected.
Go to Features > Tax Receipts > All Tax Receipts in your Givecloud Admin.
Select the generated tax receipt from the list and click "View Receipt" to review the details.

Review a Supporter's Tax Receipts

To review a donor's issued tax receipts on an account:

Go to Supporters.
Search the donor you wish to review and open their profile.
Select Tax Receipts located in the left-side menu, which will display past receipts.

Hide "My Tax Receipts" Section In Donor Portal

The "My Tax Receipts" section in a supporter's donor portal is enabled by default. If you want to disable it for all supporters:

Go to Settings > Supporter Preferences.
Scroll down to the "Donor Portal Features", then uncheck the option "View Tax Receipts".
Scroll to the top and Save.

Troubleshooting Tax Receipt Issues

When tax receipts are not functioning as expected, check the following:

1. Verify Account-Level Tax Receipt Settings

Ensure the universal Tax Receipts setting is enabled in your account settings.
This enables the "Allow Tax Receipts" option to appear for donation forms or items.

2. Check Product-Level Settings

Confirm the price type of items is set to Donation, as items marked Fixed Price will behave as product sales and not generate tax receipts.
Check that the Fair Market Value is not equal to the donation amount to ensure eligibility for tax receipts.