Income Tax Planning

One of the great advantages of making a philanthropic gift – other than helping the charity, of course – is that you can receive an income tax deduction for your gift.

Making Charitable Giving More Affordable

If you're charitably inclined, but not giving because you're concerned about keeping enough money for living expenses, planned giving might be able to help.

A charitable remainder trust or charitable gift annuity allows you to make a charitable gift now and receive an immediate income tax deduction – all while receiving income payments for a number of years (up to 20 years or for the rest of your life – it's your choice)

Get More from the Giving You're Already Doing

If you're making large charitable gifts every year, you may not be getting the full income tax benefit that you're entitled to. The IRS places limits on the amount of a charitable income tax deduction you can take each year. So if you're giving a substantial portion of your income to charity, you may be missing out on a valuable deduction.

A charitable lead trust (CLT) can help you capture some of that charitable income tax deduction. Unlike a charitable remainder trust, you won't get any immediate income tax deduction from a gift to a CLT. But what you can do is remove from your taxes the income that you are using to fund your charitable gifts.

Here's how that works...

The CLT is a taxable trust. But it doesn't have the same restrictions on charitable income tax deductions that you do. If you transfer property to the CLT that produces enough income to cover your charitable gifts, the CLT will be able to deduct 100% of its annual charitable gift on its income tax return.

And as an added bonus, your beneficiaries will receive the property remaining in the CLT at the end of the charitable payments.

How to Get Started

Let's start a conversation about how you can get more from your existing charitable gifts for yourself, your family, and your charities. Call us at (888) 909-1414 or contact us online to schedule a no-fee Discovery Session.