Planned Giving Perspective: Three Tax Strategies To Optimize Your Charitable Giving

The end of tax season is quickly approaching! Learning how tax strategies can help you optimize your charitable donations not only benefits you, but also the non-profit organizations you support.

Here are three strategies to optimize your charitable contributions for this year and in the future:*

1. Open a Donor-Advised Fund

One of the most common strategies for increasing deductions for charitable donations is to open a donor-advised fund.

These accounts let a taxpayer donate a lump sum upfront to claim the deduction in that tax year, and then dole out the money to nonprofits over time. A significant contribution can enable the taxpayer to itemize deductions, rather than take the standard deduction, and receive a tax benefit for their charitable giving.

2. Donate Appreciated Stock

Donating appreciated stock gives investors the opportunity to shelter the gains from taxes. If you have held the stock for at least a year, you can generally take its fair market value as a deduction. This is a significant opportunity and benefits people that are looking make a charitable gift.

Donating appreciated stocks also complements the use of a donor-advised fund as you can give the shares either to a donor-advised account or directly to a non-profit organization.

3. Make Qualified Charitable Distributions

A qualified charitable distribution, or QCD, is a direct distribution from a pretax individual retirement account or a 401(k) to a charity. Retirees who must take required minimum distributions, or RMDs, from such retirement accounts can benefit from fulfilling a portion with a QCD. Doing so helps satisfy the RMD, and the transfer isn’t counted toward their adjusted gross income.

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Make sure to take advantage of these breaks in 2024. Most laws around charitable giving may change as provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act end by the end of 2025.

Learn more about how you can support Easterseals Southern California while optimizing your tax strategies by visiting easterseals.mylegacygift.org.

*This article is informational purposes only. Always consult your tax, financial and/or legal advisors before implementing any transactions or strategies concerning your finances.