What if your clients make donations to entities that don’t fall under a specific section of the Internal Revenue Code, but feel “charitable” nonetheless because the dollars are helping people in need? Perhaps a client has helped set up a dedicated account at a bank to provide scholarships to the children of an accident victim, or even participated in a GoFundMe fundraiser to help a specific family…

Donor-advised funds are a popular charitable giving tool. And right now is a perfect time to evaluate this planning strategy for your clients. In recent years, donor-advised funds have been one of the fastest-growing philanthropic planning tools in the marketplace. Donor-advised funds are popular because they allow an individual or family to make a tax-deductible transfer that qualifies as a char…

In today’s market conditions, we want to highlight the unique importance of Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) and Charitable Lead Annuity Trusts (CLATs). Given the critical needs facing our community right now, the team at the FM Area Foundation wants to reiterate the value of these two planning tools. Please contact us if you have any questions about how these charitable giving techniqu…

As your clients gear up for another year of giving, how can you help them make the most of their good intentions? Consider helping clients plan their charitable giving budgets around three points—amount, timing, and category. How much? That’s the $64 question. Likely more, depending on the client's budget. Something for clients to keep in mind when setting a budget for supporting favorite cause…

Businesses frequently make cash donations to charitable organizations. But what happens to the deductibility of those donations under the state and local tax limitations imposed by the 2017 tax law? This issue continues to be the subject of discussion, but your business clients should be encouraged by the IRS’s commentary. The IRS has taken the position that a business taxpayer can usually deduct …

If you’re like most advisors today, you’re seeing an uptick in clients’ questions about charitable giving techniques that go beyond the nuts and bolts of tax law. Attorneys, accountants, and financial advisors hold trusted positions with philanthropic families to offer not only suggestions for tax planning in support of favorite causes, but also to be aware of perspectives that will make the chari…

When available, donations from IRAs are one of the best charitable giving tools after tax reform. They completely avoid the standard deduction and give the donor a full dollar-for-dollar benefit. For federal tax purposes, qualified distributions up to $100K from an IRA made directly to charitable organizations are excluded from the owner’s gross income, if the distributions are made on or after t…

Most taxpayers won’t accumulate enough itemized deductions to exceed the new standard deduction. But if they plan deductions to be incurred over every other (or every third) year, they may periodically exceed the standard deduction and secure a tax benefit for their charitable donations in that “bunched” year. The key is pushing some deductions off to a future year and then, in that year, acceler…