Tax Tip of the Week | No. 459 | The New Tax Law and Your Charitable Deductions

Tax Tip of the Week | May 9, 2018 | No. 459 | The New Tax Law and Your Charitable Deductions

Granted, for many people, the tax savings is not the number one driver for making charitable contributions, “but rather it’s your desire to impact the lives of others that motivates you to give.” However, having said that, it is always nice for Uncle Sam to give you an even bigger bang for the buck by granting you a tax deduction for your contributions. The resulting tax savings, effectively, helps you fund the contribution.Much press has been devoted to the new tax law and its impact on your itemized tax deductions. Your charitable contributions are but one of your itemized deductions. And, to be able to “itemize”, you must exceed the standard deduction. Which is all well and fine but the new law increased the amount of the standard deduction. As a result, fewer people will be itemizing since the standard deduction will result in a greater benefit. If you use the standard deduction you will not receive any tax benefit for your charitable contributions. Currently about 30% of the United States itemizes when filing their taxes. Only about half of those will continue to itemize under the new tax law.The Dayton Foundation, along with other organizations, has what is known as a Donor-Advised Fund or Charitable Checking Account (CCA). The idea behind these are to create the ability to “bundle your charitable giving by making large gifts into your fund or account in one year then dispersing grants to charity over a multi- year period. This allows you to take advantage of the charitable deduction in the year you itemize while taking the standard deductions in other years when you may not meet the threshold.” Please note that the “bundling” technique is not necessary if you have enough to itemize.Other new changes include “an increase on the limitation of cash gifts to a charity from 50% of adjusted gross income to 60% as well as a doubling of the estate tax threshold.  One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the IRA Charitable Rollover provision. Donors ages 70-1/2 or older should consider this tax-wise option first when making a charitable gift. These individuals can donate up to $100,000 annually from their IRA to any 501(c)(3) charitable organization without treating the distribution as taxable income.” In my opinion, this IRA Charitable Rollover provision is one of the more under-utilized provisions in the tax law.Many other charitable and estate planning opportunities other than the ones above exist. Be sure to work hand in hand with your financial planner and your CPA to optimize the tax savings for yourself and to maximize the dollars that flow to the charitable organizations that you support.Credit to Joseph Baldasare, MS, CFRE, Chief Development Officer of the Dayton Foundation for some ideas, concepts and excerpts from his article, How the New Tax legislation Could Affect your Charitable Deductions.Thank you for all of your questions, comments and suggestions for future topics. As always, they are much appreciated. We may be reached in Dayton at 937-436-3133 and in Xenia at 937-372-3504. Or visit our website.This week's author – Mark Bradstreet, CPA--until next week.